CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
OF FINGOLAND 

W.R LIVINGSTONE 




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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

OF FINGOLAND 



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MRS. FORSYTH 



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CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

OF FINGOLAND 

THE STORY OF 
THE LONELIEST WOMAN IN AFRICA 

BY 
W. P. LIVINGSTONE 

AUTHOR OP "THE WHITE QUEEN OF OKOYONG," 
"MARY SLESSOR OP CALABAR," ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED 




NEW S^WJr YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



*#& 



COPYRIGHT, 1919, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



MAY \2 \m 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



©CI. A 5 157 9 8 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

Mrs. Forsyth, the heroine of the following 
narrative, lived alone for thirty years in an 
isolated mission station in Fingoland, South- 
East Africa, amongst a wild and dissolute 
tribe of heathens. During that period she 
never moved outside a radius of twenty 
miles from her humble mission-house. She 
seldom saw a white face; she was unknown 
to the majority of South African mission- 
aries, even to those of the Church with which 
she was connected; only a few had come 
across her; fewer still had been at Xolobe. 
To all who knew of her she was a marvel. 
The missionary under whom she worked de- 
clared that there was not one woman in five 
hundred who could have lived the life she 
lived. 

Her character was almost as unique as 
her work. " It is curious," writes another 
missionary, " that she should have a bio- 



vi CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

graphy; one can scarcely imagine her read- 
ing it. She was simple and unassuming to a 
degree. Praise was very far from her — she 
who merited praise more than any of us. 
We often spoke in admiration of her — but 
never to her face. In her house, her dress, 
her speech, her bearing, her surroundings, 
her whole outlook on life and manner of life, 
her simplicity and humility and abnegation 
of self were evident." 

Before she retired, at the age of seventy- 
two, the attention of the writer was drawn 
to her remarkable career, and he desired to 
essay some account of it, but waited until 
she returned to Scotland in the expectation 
of obtaining abundant material from herself. 
For the sake of the mission cause she was 
persuaded to consent to the project, but, 
when it was undertaken, only grew enthusi- 
astic about her converts, and was smilingly 
reticent about personal details. What is 
written, therefore, has been compiled chiefly 
from an early diary, her reports and letters, 
and material supplied by friends. Special 
acknowledgment must be made of the assist- 
ance rendered by the Rev. James Auld, 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE vii 

M.A., and his sister, Miss E. M. Auld, of 
Paterson, Kafraria, to whom the book owes 
much of whatever interest it possesses. 
When she read the MS., Mrs. Forsyth's 
only remark was: "There is too much about 
myself in it." 

It is a simple human story. The range 
of interest and action is a narrow one; no 
large events or important policies emerge 
for treatment; the racial, political, and eco- 
nomic problems which bulk so largely in 
South African affairs find no place in it. 
But in the whole range of missionary bio- 
graphy one will find few figures who are at 
once so lovable and so strong, so lonely and 
yet so happy, so humble and yet so great. 

Mrs. Forsyth was very like Miss Slessor, 
the pioneer missionary of Calabar, in char- 
acter, faith, humour, patience, and courage, 
and there are some curious parallelisms in 
their careers, but the two differed greatly in 
their methods. Miss Slessor was a worker 
on a large stage and touched thousands of 
lives. Eager for territorial expansion she 
thought in terms of towns and districts. 



viii CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

Mrs. Forsyth was an intensive worker, think- 
ing in terms of individuals. To use her own 
words she was " a watcher for souls." She 
was as brave and tenacious in seeking to 
conquer a man or woman as Miss Slessor 
was to win a tribe. 

But it was the same spirit which impelled 
both, and the service of the one was comple- 
mentary to that of the other. Hence the 
record of Mrs. Forsyth's career may com- 
plete a picture which Miss Slessor's life be- 
gan — a picture of how women's faith and 
love and effort are seeking, along different 
lines of activity, to redeem and re-create the 
people of Africa. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introductory Note v 



PART I 

Early Lights and Shadows 

CHAPTER 

I Artist or Missionary? . 

II A Love Mystery .... 

III From Fife to South Africa . 

IV A Land of Blood and Superstition 
V Over the Veld to Paterson . 

VI School and Kraal .... 

VII On the Edge of Rebellion . 

VIII Hail, Rain, Lightning . 

IX The End of Her Romance . 



PART II 
The Heat and Burden of the Day 



15 
20 
25 
31 
42 
47 
56 
60 
65 



I 


In the Den of " Wolves " . 


. . 71 


II 


Adventures .... 


. . 77 


III 


The Powers of Darkness 


83 


IV 


The Siege of the Chief 


. 89 


V 


Persecution .... 


. 93 


VI 


The Tyranny of Taki . 
iz 


. 100 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 




PAGE 


VII 


The Witch-Doctor's Fate . 


. 108 


VIII 


A Nine-Days' Wonder . 


. 112 


IX 


The Greenock Gift 


. 116 


X 


Official Tributes .... 


. 121 


XI 


An Experiment Which Failed 


. 126 


XII 


A Fire and a Revival 


133 


XIII 


The Miracle of Ten Years . 


137 


XIV 


Abdication 


142 


XV 


The Doctor's Warning . 


146 


XVI 


Visitors from Scotland . 


151 


XVII 


A Bigger House of God ... 


156 


XVIII 


Mr. Stewart's Pen-Picture . 


163 


XIX 


The New Umfundisi and His Sister 


168 


XX 


Toiling and Rejoicing . 


173 


XXI 


Personal Characteristics 


181 


XXII 


A Vision of Souls .... 

PART III 
Eventide 


189 


I 


Completely Shut In 


211 


II 


Her Independence 


216 


III 


The Shock of the War . 


221 


IV 


Sadness of Farewell . 


226 


V 


Back to Civilisation . 


232 


VI 


Was It Worth It? 


237 


VII 


An Estimate from the Field 


240 


VIII 


Rest Time 


244 




Index 


247 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mrs. Forsyth Frontispiece 

PAGB 

Map of South-East Africa xiv 

At the Age of Twenty-five 40 

A Witch-Doctor 40 

Xolobe 74 

A Group of Fingo Women 86 

A Boys' " Initiation " Dance 86 

A Typical Fingo 114 

The Greenock Schoolhouse 144 

Handing over the School 144 

Married Women Outside Hut 158 

Christian Fingo Girls 178 

A Heathen Family 178 

'Smoy ana's Bathing Place . . , . * 218 



PART I 

EARLY LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 

Age 1-41 



ARTIST OR MISSIONARY? 

In the early years of last century there 
lived in Perthshire a prosperous farmer 
named Moir. He leased two properties — 
Daldoran and Thornhill — which were well 
stocked with cattle, and he had a balance 
of £1000 to his name in the bank. One ill 
day the laird's factor, a worthless man, who 
had fallen into difficulties, applied to him 
for financial help, and he, sympathetic and 
generous, became his surety to a large 
amount. As not infrequently happens in 
cases of the kind, the surety was called upon 
to make good the responsibility he had under- 
taken. Ere the claim was satisfied the farmer 
was swept bare of all his possessions and had 
not a penny to call his own. The house- 
hold was broken up, and father and sons 
went into service. 

One of the sons, John, found work in 
Glasgow. With the same simple trust in 

15 



16 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

human nature as his father he placed all his 
savings in the care of his master. By and 
by the latter failed, and John's money was 
lost. Undaunted, he started again, and 
after many difficulties and hardships attained 
success. He was, however, forty-six before 
he felt justified in marrying. Then came 
years of sunshine and happiness, with 
children growing up in the home. There 
were three girls and a boy, the second of 
the girls being Christina, who was born on 
October 23, 1844. 

John Moir was a quiet man, of sterling 
character and deep religious convictions, and 
his wife was like-minded, and they were 
loyal to the best traditions of Scottish homes. 
The children were carefully drilled in the 
Shorter Catechism, gathering every Sabbath 
evening round their father and repeating 
the answers. Often he would tell them that 
he had learned the Larger Catechism off by 
heart and rallied them on not being able to 
do what he had done. 

Mrs. Moir died when Christina was ten 
years of age. The manner of her going was 
that of one who had lived much in the Un- 
seen. The dividing line had worn very thin. 
" The room is full of angels," she said, in 
an awed whisper. She committed the 



ARTIST OR MISSIONARY? 17 

children to the care of Bessie, the eldest, 
who thenceforward became the mother of 
the household. Mr. Moir passed away ten 
years later. He seemed at the last to have 
a vision of Christ, and his last words were, 
"Peace. I shall see Him as He is now." 
The appropriate text of the funeral sermon 
preached by his minister, the Rev. David 
Young of Montrose Street (now Woodlands 
Road) Church, was, " Mark the perfect man, 
and behold the upright: for the end of that 
man is peace." 

Christina was educated at a private school. 
She was a girl of original character, taking 
life seriously, and early began to consider 
her future. Two careers, widely diverse in 
character, appealed to her, that of an artist 
and that of a missionary. She had an eye 
for pictorial effect, and haunted the city 
exhibitions. Long afterwards, during the 
lonely years in Africa, the memory which 
gave her most pleasure was the enchanting 
time she spent in those galleries. A cousin 
who was an etcher encouraged her in her 
ambition to study art, but her father opposed 
the idea: in his estimation drawing and 
painting were not "useful" accomplish- 
ments for girls. 

The longing to be a missionary was more 



18 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

deeply implanted in her nature and less 
objection was taken to the proposal. In her 
mother, indeed, she found a strong ally who 
stimulated her interest in the work abroad 
by every means in her power. The last 
prayer she taught Christina was, " May the 
knowledge of the Lord cover the earth as 
the waters cover the seas." 

When she was about fourteen Christina 
had a definite religious experience which 
shows how life touches life and creates 
impulses and movements that influence 
others in ever-widening circles. A cousin 
came to visit the family, and one day in 
conversation she ventured to ask Christina 
if she had faith in Christ. A simple question, 
but it startled the girl and made her think. 
The two friends went to a meeting in Bridge- 
gate Free Church where a workman in his 
rough clothes told how he had found Christ. 
" The words that caught me," he said, 
" were, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and 
are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest'." 
Christina returned home deep in thought and 
longing to secure the rest and peace which 
the Divine invitation offered. She knelt in 
prayer, intimate and intense, and when she 
rose her life had been surrendered to Christ. 

After this she naturally passed into the 



ARTIST OR MISSIONARY? 19 

service of the Church, becoming a teacher 
in a mission Sunday School and then in one 
in connection with Montrose Street con- 
gregation. Amongst her colleagues there 
was a Miss Paterson, who afterwards be- 
came the wife of the Rev. John Sclater, the 
founder of the mission station in South 
Africa with which Christina became so 
closely connected. Mrs. Sclater recalls the 
strong impression which the girl made upon 
her by her pronounced principles and the 
character of her prayers at the teachers' 
meetings. During one of Mr. Sclater's fur- 
loughs he gave an address in the church on 
Kafraria, and so stirred the heart of Christina 
that she told her elder, Miss Paterson's 
father, that she was willing to give herself to 
the work. 



II 

A LOVE MYSTERY 

There was another experience affecting 
Christina at this period which had probably 
the greatest influence in determining her 
career. The factors that alter the currents 
of lives are not always visible or known to 
onlookers; they are sometimes of the most 
secret character; but it is only in the light 
of these hidden causes that after-events can 
be read aright. If the course of true love 
had run smooth for Miss Moir the African 
mission-field might have lost one of its 
noblest workers. 

In the church she attended sat a young 
man, the son of a banker in the city, who 
was attracted by the fair-haired, winsome 
girl. The liking was mutual and gradually 
there grew up between them an affection 
which ripened into deep and steadfast love. 
They did not give much expression to their 
passion; they were both of strong reticent 

20 



A LOVE MYSTERY 21 

natures; but it flowed pure and sweet and 
made life for them beautiful and glad. It 
gave an impetus to the girl's religious im- 
pulses and made her a still more earnest 
and efficient worker. 

Time merely accentuated the bond be- 
tween them. No open declaration was 
necessary, for the mutual understanding was 
perfect. The young man went to London 
to train as a banker and a year or two later 
he received an appointment in India. He 
returned to Glasgow to say farewell to his 
friends. It was not time to enter into a 
definite engagement, but anxious to keep 
in touch with the girl he loved he devised 
a scheme which, he imagined, would fulfil 
the purpose. He made the three sisters 
agree to write him regularly and he promised 
to write each in return. In this way he 
would be able to correspond with Christina 
without exciting comment. And so, happy 
in the dream of youth, he went forth to 
make his fortune. 

The plan was carried out. Christina 
wrote, and then going quietly about her 
work, looked and waited for a reply. She 
waited in vain. Her sisters received letters 
from India and wrote in return, but none 
came for her, and she remained outside the 



22 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

friendly correspondence. Her heart grew 
wistful, then sad, then cold. Gradually all 
casual references to her dropped out of his 
communications to the other sisters, and 
she, on her part, never mentioned his name. 
It was a mystery. There was clearly a mis- 
understanding somewhere but she was not 
conscious of anything blameworthy. 

He came home on furlough and they met, 
but years of silence are not easy to explain 
or span, and they drifted further apart. 
She said nothing, showed no sign of distress, 
and buried her sorrow deeper in her heart. 

A poem she wrote at this time gives a 
clue to her thoughts and fancies. It is like 
an eyelet in a wall through which we obtain 
a glimpse into a secluded garden. We see 
her stricken and disillusioned heart, but we 
also see her soul rising above mortal pain 
and struggle and finding peace and rest in 
the Eternal. We see also the blossoming 
of those qualities of faith and devotion 
which sent her at last to Africa in obedience 
to the "golden law of sacrifice": — 

Wherefore, O wav'ring soul, this wild unrest, 
This beating at the prison bars of life? 
It is the Lord of All who dealeth out 
Thy daily lot — how canst thou then repine? 
Think of the sorrows of the Lord of All, 
His daily dying through His earthly years, 



A LOVE MYSTERY 23 

The agony of dark Gethsemane, 

When blood-sweat flow'd, when darkness fill'd His soul, 

With none to watch and none to sympathise. 

Behold thy Saviour drink the bitter cup 

Unmurmuring — " 'Twas not My will, but Thine/' 

Think, think of this, my soul, and how canst thou 

Say aught? Think of false Judas; remember too 

The soldiers, with the lanterns and the staves; 

The Spotless Lamb led silent forth to slaughter; 

The malice and the fiendish craft of men 

And devils all array 'd in blackest hate ; 

The garments parted, and the kingly robe, 

The reedy sceptre, and the crown of thorns 

Piercing His flesh; anew the blood flows forth. 

And all that pain and shame were borne for thee. 

And now they blindfold, mock, and buffet Him; 

Then force the weary, fainting Son of Man 

The heavy cross to bear, along the way 

Of grief to Calvary, where He, uplifted, dies 

With basest ones on either side. My soul, 

Behold the Man! my soul, behold thy God! 

This death brings life to thee. And now 

Combined is all the force of Hell. The sun 

In horror seeks to hide his face, and noon 

Doth wear the sombre hues of darksome night. 

Christ in deep anguish cries : " My God, My God, 

Why dost Thou Me forsake ! " 'Mid pangs of death 

Resigns His soul into His Father's hand, 

And then 'tis o'er. Triumphantly the cry 

Utter'd on earth is by angelic hosts 

With gladness caught and echoes through all space 

As they do bear the Lamb of God again 

To Paradise, with ransom'd new-born soul, 

Pledge of His pow'r to save to th' uttermost, 



24 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

Baffling the very might of Satan, 
As He arose, the first-fruits from the dead. 
My soul ! thou canst not fathom love like this. 
It has a height, a depth, a length, a breadth 
Thou eanst in life but know in part; but joy 
Awaiteth thee. Look up, rejoice, He lives, 
A glorious Saviour ! Constantly He pleads 
For thee within the veil, with God, thy God. 
Thy times are in His hand, He orders all — 
Joy in the thought that thou canst suffer loss 
Or cross for Him. He led the way, He bids 
Thee follow on, and with thy life it ends. 
If it is dark, how bright the light of heav'n, 
Pure, dazzling, unimagined and unknown 
To mortal earth. Here night shuts out the day. 
" Earth's fairest flow'rs bloom but to fade and die/ 
And fondest friends forsake. He felt this too. 
Cling close to Him; He will not leave in life 
Nor yet at death forsake. Him glorify; 
Let every wish, and word, and work be for Him, 
And for those who love His name; and those 
Who are without bring in that they too may 
Receive His saving grace. The golden law 
Of God is sacrifice. The fields are white 
To harvest, but the labourers are few — 
Lord of the harvest, thrust Thy lab'rers forth. ' 
• ••••• 

Fear not; the cloudy pillar leads by day, 
The fire by night; beneath the brooding cloud 
The manna falls, and He is " God with us." 

Yea, as the boundless ocean covers all 

The deep, so shall the knowledge of Thy name 

O'erspread the earth. 



Ill 

FROM FIFE TO SOUTH AFRICA 

All thought of the mission-field was mean- 
while banished by the call of a service lying 
more closely to her hand. John Moir was, 
in accordance with his mother's wish, study- 
ing for the ministry, and one of the sisters 
was needed to keep house for him. Christina 
saw that this was the path of duty for her 
and cheerfully subordinated her own ambi- 
tion to his interests. John passed through 
the High School, University, and Divinity 
Hall, graduating M.A. and B.D., and was 
called to Cairneyhill, in the west neuk of 
Fife, whence his sister naturally accompanied 
him. She was now a capable young woman 
of twenty-eight, in every way fitted to 
discharge the duties of the lady of the manse. 
Cairneyhill is situated in the historic 
district where the Relief Church was cradled, 
and borders the high road from Dunfermline. 
The manse and church stand side by side, 

25 



26 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

two plain grey buildings, with a garden and 
a neighbouring " green " still known as the 
tent-green, because the preaching tent was 
pitched there at the sacrament season. 

The manse of Cairneyhill was well known 
throughout the United Presbyterian Church, 
for in it had been carried on, during the 
ministry of the Rev. John More, a " seminary 
for young ladies," which drew pupils from 
all parts of Scotland. Its founder and prin- 
cipal was the minister's wife, who, for forty 
years, both taught and mothered the girls 
with equal efficiency. The hospitality of 
the manse was proverbial, and there was 
seldom a week-end when some distinguished 
preacher or group of college students did 
not pay it a visit. Mr. More was a man 
much beloved by his people, and when Mr. 
Moir settled amongst them he found his 
memory still cherished. His own modest 
and gentle ways reminded them so much of 
their old pastor that they slipped into the 
habit of calling him " Mr. More," and " Mr. 
More " he continued to be to the end. 

Nothing seemed more circumscribed and 
permanent than the life Miss Moir lived in 
this quiet country manse, yet the lines of 
coincidence were stretching out from the 
ends of the earth to change its even tenour. 



FROM FIFE TO SOUTH AFRICA 27 

One day there appeared a young mining- 
engineer named Allan Forsyth, the eldest 
son of the editor of the Inverness Advertiser, 
who had just returned from Australia and 
was paying a visit to his aunt in the village. 
He was attracted by the pleasant thoughtful 
woman flitting in and out of the homes of 
the people and he wooed her diligently. 
She regarded him with favour. That old 
romance of hers had still tremendous power 
over her inmost feelings, but it was foolish 
to cherish the thought of it and make it 
spoil her future, and so she resolutely put it 
away and turned to the practical possibilities 
of life. Before long the friendship culmi- 
nated in an engagement, but as Mr. Forsyth 
was called away to some work in South 
America, the wedding was deferred. 

In due time John Moir married and his 
sister felt free to realise her old longing. 
She had always been attracted by the 
character of the work in South Africa, where 
both the Free Church and the United Presby- 
terian Churches carried on missions amongst 
the Kafirs, and in 1878 she offered herself 
to the Mission Board of the United Presby- 
terian Church as an unpaid worker for that 
field, for a period of three years. In view 
of her attainments she was accepted as a 



28 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

teacher for the girls' school at Emgwali, the 
mission station rendered famous by its 
association with the first ordained native 
minister, the Rev. Tiyo Soga. Started in a 
thatched cottage in 1861 by the Ladies' 
Kafrarian Society, an auxiliary Church 
agency which has, during its long career, 
rendered splendid service in the cause of 
education in Kafirland, the school developed 
into a well-equipped and efficient institution, 
and became noted as a centre radiating 
Christian and civilising influences amongst 
the natives of the country. 

Thirty-four years of age, Miss Moir was 
older than the women missionaries who are 
now taken on the staff, but she never saw 
cause to think that she began too late. It 
might be very well for younger girls to 
undertake ordinary station work, but she 
believed that in the case of the difficult 
conditions and problems associated with raw 
heathenism, age and experience count more 
than freshness and enthusiasm. 

She left Southampton in the s.s. Nubian 
in January, 1879, the month when the Zulu 
War opened so disastrously. The first part 
of the voyage was very stormy, and there was 
a great deal of sickness amongst the pas- 
sengers, but calm came in time. The com- 



FROM FIFE TO SOUTH AFRICA 29 

r 

pany on board was a varied one, and there 
was much to interest and amuse the un- 
travelled but observant and shrewd Scottish 
passenger who kept so quiet and tranquil 
amidst the petty distractions of the journey. 

In her diary are brief characterisations of 
various persons: the Bishop who was kept 
busy all day escorting the numerous seasick 
ladies of his party on deck, and who preached 
to a pale and listless few from the text, 
" Man goeth forth to his work and to his 
labour till the evening " ; the Curate who 
threw off his sanctimoniousness when he 
threw off his surplice; the German who was 
so desperate to learn English that he waylaid 
ladies for lessons; the bejewelled diamond- 
digger and gambler who said there was no 
proof that the Bible was true, and who, on 
being told to think half an hour daily, 
declared that if he were to think he would 
go mad; the children to whom she found 
gingerbread cake an excellent means of 
introduction; the lady who told her, a little 
spitefully, that she had seen more degraded 
people in Edinburgh and Glasgow than in 
the whole of Natal. 

After a passage of twenty-four days Cape 
Town was reached. It was bathed in the 
light of sunset, and Miss Moir thought she 



30 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

had never seen a lovelier sight. Here she 
made her first acquaintance with the dark- 
skinned natives, and set herself, as she said, 
to "get used to them." At Port Elizabeth 
she visited the places of interest, but every- 
thing suggested " a thirsty land wherein is 
no water." The steamer arrived at East 
London, the port of entry for the vast 
territory of Kafraria, late on a Saturday 
evening, but a storm kept the passengers on 
board until the following afternoon, when 
she was swung over the side in a basket, and 
landed and faced alone the strange conditions 
of a new country. 



IV 

A LAND OF BLOOD AND 
SUPERSTITION 

On the way out she had been studying books 
relating to South Africa — Theal's chiefly — 
and taking notes, endeavouring to form 
some conception of the country to which she 
was proceeding, the people who occupied it, 
and the conditions of life amongst them; 
and gradually she built up a picture in her 
mind which had greater elements of interest 
than she had imagined. She knew that the 
sub-continent of Africa was classic mission 
ground, but she began to realise that the 
whole story of its human occupation was 
extraordinarily fascinating and thrilling, an 
epic of movement over vast regions in which 
entire races strove for mastery and survival, 
a record of struggle, adventure, and peril, 
and that the district in which she was being 
located was the scene of some of the most 

31 



32 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

dramatic episodes in the development of 

events. 

* * * * * 

As she read, a vision of the country came 
before her, and especially Kafirland itself, 
rich in physical beauty and economic possi- 
bilities. It lies in the eastern corner of 
South Africa, where the coast curves round 
from the Cape and is washed by the warm 
waters of the Indian Ocean. From the sea 
the land rises in a series of terraces until it 
culminates in the lofty range of the Drakens- 
berg. 

Into this strip of territory is crowded a 
wonderful throng of valley, wood, plateau, 
veld, and peak, threaded by streams and 
rivers, now low and quiescent or altogether 
dry, now pouring down in sudden flood. A 
pastoral and agricultural country, the chief 
productions are sheep and cattle, maize, 
oats, wheat and barley, and potatoes, beans, 
and other food plants. Only small patches 
of the soil, however, are cultivated by the 
natives. 

The seasons are the reverse of those in 
Britain, summer extending from October to 
March, winter from April to September. In 
the district of Fingoland the summer is 
uniformly hot, often with a shade tempera- 



A LAND OF BLOOD 33 

ture of 100 to 104 degrees, and there are 
frequent thunderstorms and hailstorms, but 
the mornings and evenings are cool and 
exhilarating. In winter there is a dry sun- 
shiny cold, the temperature often falling 
below 45 degrees, and the higher hills are 
white with snow. 



Then her thoughts dwelt on the history 
of the land. South Africa was originally 
occupied by the Bushmen, a pigmy people 
on the lowest level of existence, but with 
some idea of art, as drawings of animals on 
the walls of their cave dwellings testify. 
They were succeeded by the Hottentots, who, 
though wild and savage, were superior to 
them both in physical and mental qualities. 
Their language had peculiar suction " clicks " 
made by the tongue against the teeth or 
palate and used for the sound of certain 
letters. 

Both Bushmen and Hottentots dwindled 
almost to the point of extinction before 
the advent of a stronger race, composed of 
many groups calling themselves the Bantus, 
who swept in great waves down from the 
unknown north. The vanguard of the ad- 
vancing horde moved along the south-eastern 
seaboard, and overran the whole of the fair 



34 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

country as far south as the Great Fish River, 
where it came up against the frontiers of the 
white men. To the members of this, the 
Xosa group, was applied the name of Kafir — 
an Arab word meaning " unbeliever " — and 
the region became known as Kafraria. 

The Bantus were a nation of warriors who 
acted on the principle that might was right; 
they entertained nothing but contempt for 
tribes who were weak and loved peace, and 
crushed them without pity; and those whom 
they enslaved they exploited without mercy. 
From the Hottentots they adopted the 
" clicks " which form so curious an element 
in their speech to-day. 

Whilst Cape Colony was being settled and 
developed — with an occasional clash on the 
borderland between the forces of civilization 
and barbarism — events were taking place 
in the interior of the continent of the most 
appalling character. In one of the more 
powerful Zulu groups a lad named Chaka 
grew up, active, daring, and ambitious. Step 
by step he rose to command the army, and 
eventually became ruler of the tribe. He 
was in his rude way a military genius, he 
devised the short assegai, trained and dis- 
ciplined his warriors into perfect efficiency, 
and organised schemes of colossal conquest. 



A LAND OF BLOOD 35 

When all was ready he began a course of 
systematic subjugation, rapine, and slaughter. 
He ravaged the continent from east to west, 
laying waste populous regions and exter- 
minating entire tribes, including vast num- 
bers of women and children. Historians 
estimate that from first to last nearly 
two million lives were butchered or starved 
to death through the agencies he set in 
motion. 

Many tribes fled before the approach of 
the destroyer, and in their turn plundered 
and murdered as they marched. One of 
these was the wild Angoni, who finally settled 
on the high lands of Nyasaland, now a 
mission-field of the United Free Church. 
Another group, consisting of broken remnants 
of several tribes who concealed themselves 
in the forests and subsisted by cannibalism, 
at last crossed the Tugela River, and made 
their way down through Kaflrland, where 
in 1824 they were attacked and defeated by 
the Xosa. Amamfengu they were called — 
" vagrants, wanderers " — a word which 
Europeans soon twisted into Fingo. They 
were so cowed by their experiences that 
they had no spirit to resist the harsh and 
humiliating serfdom which was imposed upon 
them. Events proved, however, that in sub- 



36 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

mitting to the yoke they were unconsciously 
stooping to conquer. 

There was no cessation of the frontier 
troubles with the Kafirs, who periodically 
raided the Colony and left a trail of fire and 
blood behind. The missions of the Free 
Church and United Presbyterian Church of 
Scotland and other bodies stood as outposts 
in a sort of no-man's-land and were subject 
to perpetual alarms and often destroyed. 
Punitive expeditions were undertaken, but 
the Imperial Government were reluctant to 
add to their responsibilities by acquiring 
more territory. 

During one of these campaigns the Fingoes 
begged to be taken under British protection, 
and about 17,000 were located south of the 
Fish River in order that they might form a 
buffer region between the two races. As 
with the negroes in Jamaica and the Southern 
States of America, the bitter experiences of 
slavery had destroyed many of their tribal 
customs and taught them habits of regular 
industry, and when they regained their 
independence they developed rapidly in 
character and material prosperity. This was 
specially the case when they came under the 
influence of the missionaries. In subsequent 
wars they proved their loyalty and fought 



A LAND OF BLOOD 37 

well for the Government. British officers re- 
ferred to them as holding prayer-meetings 
in camp and as being an example to the 
white soldiery. 

The event which more than any other 
brought the long struggle for supremacy to 
an end was one of the most extraordi- 
nary in the history of Africa. It was a case 
of national suicide. A seer, prophesying 
through the medium of his niece, announced 
that orders had been received from the spirit- 
world that the Kafir people were to kill their 
cattle and destroy their maize and corn. As 
soon as this was done vast herds would 
emerge from the ground, the country would 
smile again with grain, and there would be 
luxuries, clothes, and guns for every one. 
The warriors of the past would reappear, 
and in a final conflict, the whites and the 
Fingoes would be scattered like autumn 
leaves and swept into the sea. All who 
believed this, and acted in the faith of it, 
would enjoy perpetual youth. 

It was a glittering prospect — but the cost! 
The Kafir loves his cattle and it tears his 
heart to part with them. There was, how- 
ever, no escape. The paramount chief, 
Kreli, ordered every man to obey, and the 
work of destruction was carried through to 



38 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

completion. Over two hundred thousand 
head of cattle were killed and the entire corn 
supply was scattered to the winds. 

When the time for the fulfilment of the 
prophecy passed and the days wore on, the 
Xosa passed through agonies of anxiety, fear, 
disappointment, and despair. They were in 
a land without food. Impelled at last by 
hunger and misery they began to crawl into 
Cape Colony, a nation of skeletons, multi- 
tudes falling dead by the way. Fully 30,000 
men, women, and children perished. In a 
short time the country beyond the Kei 
River — the Trans-kei — was depopulated and 
deserted, and nothing but empty kraals and 
heaps of snow-white bones were left to tell 
the tale of a people's magnificent faith and 
incredible folly. 

The policy of the Imperial Government 
was still against the extension of colonial 
territory, and the desolated upper part of 
the Transkei was, therefore, offered to the 
Fingoes. They flocked over in their thou- 
sands. Many Christians were amongst them, 
but also some of the worst characters that 
heathenism develops. These naturally kept 
together and settled in out - of - the - way 
districts. 

It was thus that Fingoland came into 



A LAND OF BLOOD 39 

existence. Missionaries of the Free Church 
and the United Presbyterian Church at once 
followed up the migrants, and divided the 
region into two zones of influence. The Rev. 
Tiyo Soga, then missionary at Emgwali, 
chose a site in the United Presbyterian sphere 
for a station among the Christians who had 
settled at Mbulu, and the work of organising 
and establishing a mission was entrusted to 
the Rev. John Sclater, who came from Scot- 
land for the purpose. This station soon 
became well known throughout the Church 
at home. To Mr. Sclater succeeded first 
Major Malan, a Christian soldier, and then 
the Rev. James Davidson, who went through 
the last Kafir war in 1877, when four United 
Presbyterian stations were plundered and 
destroyed. Though Mbulu was only a few 
hours' march from the scene of hostilities, 
Mr. Davidson stuck fearlessly to his post, 
as also did his Free Church neighbour at 
Cunningham. 1 

^ ?F t& 7F 

Of the people in their present condition 
she knew only what was told discreetly in 
the books. There was much to their credit. 

1 In this story the term Mbulu is applied to the district, and 
the station is given its recent name of Paterson after Mrs. 
Sclater's uncle, the Rev. Dr. Paterson of Kirkwall. 



40 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

A brave, robust race, proud and independent, 
and possessing abundant intellectual ability, 
they appealed to her own strong nature. 
Though they had lost their tribal govern- 
ment and many of their habits had been 
modified in contact with civilisation, they 
had changed little in essential character and 
the great bulk were still heathen. 

They lived, she learnt, in kraals or vil- 
lages of beehive-shaped huts constructed of 
wattle-and-daub or sods, with only one low 
opening, which served as door, no chimney, 
and little or no furniture. Formerly they 
clothed themselves with the skins of animals, 
now they wore blankets which they folded 
gracefully over their bodies, and they 
adorned themselves with necklets and arm- 
lets of beads, and copper and iron rings. As 
a protection from the sun and insects they 
rubbed their skin and blankets with red clay 
mixed with fat, hence the name "red" 
Kafir; when they became Christians the 
clay and the blanket were renounced in 
favour of civilised dress. Polygamy pre- 
vailed. Women occupied an inferior posi- 
tion, being bought in marriage for a dowry 
of stock, and a man calculated his wealth 
by the number of wives and cattle he owned. 

Her chief interest was in their religious 




AT THE AGE OF 25 




A -WITCH-DOCTOR 



A LAND OF BLOOD 41 

position, and she gathered that though their 
folk-lore showed considerable powers of 
imagination they had never reached forward 
to any true spiritual conceptions. What 
might be called their religion was a hazy 
mixture of magic and mystery. The Un- 
seen to them was peopled by malignant 
spirits, and their lives were haunted by super- 
stitious fears which were played upon, for 
his own profit, by the witch-doctor or priest. 
Some of their tribal rites were repulsive 
*n the extreme, and virtue under the condi- 
tions imposed by custom was impossible. 
But such a general statement conveyed 
nothing to her. What it really meant she 
was to learn, to her horror, in the days to 
come. 



OVER THE VELD TO PATERSON 

Knowing no one in East London Miss Moir 
made her way to the nearest hotel. Next 
day she went down to the Custom House to 
secure her luggage. As she stood in the 
crowd she heard some one say, "I've been 
looking a' day for a Miss Moa-r, and I'm 
blowed if I can fin-nd her." 

She turned and saw a young man. " I'm 
Miss Moir," she said, smiling. 

Instantly his manner changed; he be- 
came extremely polite, and stated that he 
had been sent by Mr. Coutts, the agent of 
the steamship line, to find her. Mr. Coutts, 
a Scot, was known as the " guardian angel 
of the missionaries " on account of the 
kindly interest he took in their welfare. He 
looked after the affairs of new arrivals, 
arranged their journey into the interior, and 
saw them off by train. To his care Miss 
Moir gracefully committed herself. 

42 



OVER THE VELD TO PATERSON 43 

Early in the morning, without breakfast, 
she boarded a train for Peelton, thirty-eight 
miles up country. At the first stoppage she 
felt the need of food and asked the guard 
how long the train waited. " Oh," he said, 
" just till you're ready," and she had there- 
fore time for her cup of tea. With her 
usual helpfulness she carried another cup to 
her sole fellow-passenger, a decent country 
woman with a babe in her arms, and was 
presented in turn with a rosy-cheeked apple 
which, somehow, brought up a memory of 
Scotland. 

From Peelton she proceeded over the veld 
by bullock wagon to Emgwali, a garden on 
the rolling expanse of bare country, and was 
received by the Principal, then Miss Ogilvie, 
who was called by her Kafir girls " the mother 
of the sorrowful." The new teacher was 
warmly welcomed by the native women — 
amongst whom were two widows of Sandilli, 
the famous chief of the Gaika tribe, who had 
taken part in the last rebellion. " Some- 
times," they said, " we feel inclined to doubt 
the goodness of God, but we thank Him for 
sending another teacher. We did not know 
we had so many kind friends over the sea." 

She continued the task of acquiring the 
language with the quiet resolution habitual 



44 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

to her. Kafir is not easy; it is more difficult 
than the Efik spoken in Calabar though not 
more difficult than Chinese or the tongues 
of India. It was odd to hear it spoken and 
sung in all its native vigour by the people; 
owing to the " clicks " in many of the words 
it seemed as if she were listening to a collec- 
tion of clocks ticking or a body of carters 
starting their horses. 

She found that her name was a stumbling- 
block. There is no sound of " r " in Kafir — 
the word Kafir itself is foreign to them — 
and they could not pronounce " Miss Moir " 
but they soon turned it into " Miss Moyana " 
or " 'Smoyana " by which she was ever after- 
wards known. As Moyana means " a 
breath" (in a spiritual sense) or "a little 
breeze," it was not an inappropriate designa- 
tion for one who was destined to come into 
their lives so often like a breath of pure air 
from the fields of God. 

She had not long, however, to sit and 
hear the strange €t ba, be, bo" of the children 
at their lessons. Word came from Paterson 
that Mrs. Davidson, the wife of the mis- 
sionary, was seriously ill, and that a helper 
was urgently required. Miss Moir was 
chosen to go. 

Travelling all day through a rain-washed 



OVER THE VELD TO PATERSON 45 

land bright with geraniums and aloes she 
camped after sunset, gipsy fashion, and 
next morning crossed the Kei River in a 
wagon drawn by fourteen oxen and arrived 
the same evening at Pater son. 

The beauty of its situation appealed to 
her. The station stood on a slight eminence 
at the head of the Mbulu Valley and com- 
manded a far-stretching view down towards 
the Tsomo River and away to the mountains 
about the Kei. High hills, that suggested 
to her the slopes of Arran, enclosed it, with 
richly wooded glens softening their lower 
outlines. Here and there, in open spaces, 
or half -hidden by vegetation, the round huts 
of the natives clung to the ground like limpets 
to the rocks on the shore. From the heights 
immediately above a magnificent prospect 
was obtained as far north as the Stormberg 
Range. The manse, a little below the 
church, was a goodly building with a garden 
stocked with orange and other fruit trees 
and flanked by singing streams. 

So, in the ordering of her life she came 
to the district where her work in the future 
was to lie. But there were years of training 
and hard experiences to be undergone before 
she finally settled in the niche that was 
waiting for her. 



46 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

Those who remember her at this time 
state that she was very cheerful and happy. 
She evinced a high conception of duty and 
had evidently surrendered herself completely 
to the service she had chosen. Strongly 
built, slow and deliberate in speech and 
manner, she impressed them as one who 
would persevere steadfastly in whatever 
task she undertook and would never deviate 
from it because conditions did not square 
with preconceived notions. How true the 
estimate was her subsequent career will show. 



VI 

SCHOOL AND KRAAL 

Her advent at Paterson synchronised with 
an event which she always remembered 
with pleasure. She had not been more than 
a day or two in the manse when the Rev. 
Dr. Laws, then engaged in founding the 
Livingstonia mission in Nyasaland, paid the 
Davidsons a visit. The famous missionary 
gave an address to the Christian and heathen 
population in which he told them a little of 
his life-story, described the work of explora- 
tion and settlement in which he was engaged, 
and asked for men to assist. Two natives 
offered themselves as evangelists. 

Perhaps what struck her most at first 
was the extraordinary amount of work de- 
volving upon the missionary. He had a 
population of from nine to ten thousand 
under his care: there were many out- 
stations, one thirty miles away, one twenty- 
five miles, another twenty miles, a fourth 

47 



48 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

eleven, a fifth ten and so on; the day schools 
numbered nine with 550 scholars, the Sunday- 
schools ten with forty-nine teachers and 452 
scholars. The mountainous nature of the 
country added greatly to the difficulty of 
travelling and the fatigue incurred in super- 
vising his vast " parish," and it was always 
a wonder to her how he compassed all he 
had to do. Yet his was not an uncommon 
case in the South African mission-field. 

She soon learned, also, to realise how 
potent a force the missionary's wife was 
in a South African mission-station, and to 
have compassion on her. The missionary 
had his varied travelling and intercourse 
with teachers, agents, and visitors to keep 
his spirit fresh, but upon the wife lay the 
monotonous burden of domestic manage- 
ment, and the handling of a thousand and 
one irritating details. Often there were hard- 
ships of no ordinary kind to be endured, 
involving risk to strength and health, but 
the difficulties and trials were faced and 
overcome with uncommon courage and cheer- 
fulness. 

The advent of a white teacher, trust- 
worthy and efficient, brought great relief to 
Mr. and Mrs. Davidson. She was entrusted 
with a large part of the day school work in 



SCHOOL AND KRAAL 49 

conjunction with the native teacher. There 
was an average of sixty scholars but the 
numbers soon doubled. They were the 
children of Christian and heathen parents 
and attended in all sorts of attire. Most 
of the boys wore long shirts; some had 
jackets but no trousers. One was arrayed 
in a soldier's old coat, and all displayed brass 
rings. The girls came in prints and shawls 
and without shoes or hats. The latter were 
taught sewing and knitting in addition to 
the ordinary subjects. 

The school was not without children of 
an older growth. One six-foot lad strove 
hard to keep dux of his class. Another 
" boy " twenty-four years old, and married, 
came thirty miles to attend the white 
teacher's reading lessons. Such ambition 
did not seem unnatural to Miss Moir after 
she had talked with a man who offered her 
£5 if she would teach his child to be a good 
arithmetician. 

" I will do it without a premium," she 
said. " But why are you so anxious about 
it?" 

" I went," he replied, " to the white man's 
shop to buy a blanket, and was made to pay 
16s. for it. Afterwards I found a ticket on 
it which I was told was marked 10s. I want 



50 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

my boy to read so that he may not be cheated 
when he grows up." 

"Very well," she agreed; "but he shall 
be taught something for the life to come as 
well as for this one." 

Coming out of the " red " huts, the 
children were often in an unfit state for 
school and a dozen at a time would be sent 
down to the river to be cleansed. Their 
quaint ways were a perpetual source of 
interest and amusement. A little house- 
hold girl, when her turn came to repeat a 
verse from the Bible, thought a moment and 
said, "God loves me; me loves God." 
" Where is that found ? " she was asked. 
"Oh," she replied, "me make it up; me 
in a hurry; not time to learn." 

Even at so long-established a station as 
Paterson the desire to take advantage of 
the school was by no means general. Many 
heathen parents placed it under a rigid 
boycott and threatened to beat their children 
if they ventured near. 

There was one girl with a gentle voice 
and kind disposition who attracted the 
teacher's attention by her eagerness to learn. 
She was the daughter of a heathen and had, 
when an infant, been thrown out to die by 
her grandmother because she seemed too 



SCHOOL AND KRAAL 51 

sickly to live. Her cries caused her mother 
to crawl out and bring her in, and she was 
nursed into strength, and was now a fine 
healthy girl of thirteen. Her father pro- 
posed to remove her from school, and in 
dread of the blow she one day shyly asked 
her teacher to visit him. His hut was on a 
plateau at the end of the valley with a 
magnificent view. She found him to be a 
tall muscular man, clad in a blanket, seared 
and worldly, and afraid lest Bekiwe would 
not wish to be sold for cattle when she came 
of age. 

Miss Moir thanked him for allowing the 
child to attend school. 

" I didn't send her," he said roughly, 
" she went herself," adding significantly, 
" when these clothes are done where is she 
to get new ones ? " 

" If Bekiwe trusts in God He will provide 
for her." 

Some time afterwards Bekiwe received a 
shawl from a Sunday School in Scotland, 
and she said to Miss Moir, " 'Smoyana, you 
said if I trusted in God He would provide, 
and He has sent this." 

In a letter of thanks to the children of 
the Sunday School she said: "My parents 
are heathen, I am a believer, but they are 



52 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

not like me, believing. The place I live at 
is the place where the heathen sit. I am 
the only person who dresses." 

"What made you think of going to 
school ? " her teacher once asked her. 

"When I looked at my father's pass," 
was her reply, alluding to the written per- 
mission to travel obtained by natives from 
the magistrate, " I thought I would like to 
read it and so decided to come to school 
for a year. God came into my heart and 
then I had no wish to leave." 

Of Bekiwe we shall hear again. 

Another important work Miss Moir under- 
took was to visit the kraals on Sunday 
mornings accompanied by a bodyguard of 
the Christian children who formed a kind of 
choir. In this way she came close to heathen 
life in its stark squalor and degradation, and 
to the heathen mind, so curiously simple and 
yet so bafflingly complex. 

Not always was she welcome. Some men, 
when they saw her coming, would slink away 
up the mountain — " to look after their 
sheep," they said. One exclaimed in disgust, 
" You are always speaking about your gods. 
I am sick of it." Another muttered, " God 
will be with us whether we love sin or not." 
After she had spoken on the resurrection, 



SCHOOL AND KRAAL 53 

one protested indignantly, "Z will not rise 
from the dead." The only comment of a 
young man on an address she gave on prayer 
was, " Can I get what I want from God ? " — 
then, in an undertone, " I would like a 
jacket." 

This materialistic attitude of mind some- 
times had startling manifestations. One day 
she was sitting in a kraal in the midst of a 
group of half-naked men and women decked 
with ornaments of beads and coins. They 
were cooking, eating, or lounging, while lean 
dogs roamed around. She began to tell 
them the story of the Crucifixion. As she 
spoke the women fastened their eyes upon 
her, their hearts touched by the pathos of 
the great world-tragedy. When she finished 
they expressed their horror at the cruelty of 
the men who had put so gentle a Saviour to 
death. Then one young man, covered with 
beads, rose, and with dramatic pqsturings 
showed how He had hung on the Cross and 
suffered and died. 

She never lost patience with them. 
Quietly, doggedly, unceasingly, she taught 
them the love of God and the principles of 
the redemptive gospel. When she asked 
one man what he would do with his child if 
the latter would not come to him or obey 



54 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

him, he said: " I would speak pleasantly 
to it and induce it to come." " That is 
what I mean to do to you until I bring you 
to the Great Father," was her reply. 

" Never mind the people not treating you 
kindly, 'Smoyana," remarked another man. 
" They are ignorant and foolish, and know 
nothing; go on and teach them." 

From time to time a wave of spiritual 
conviction and surrender moved the district 
and swept considerable numbers into the 
membership of the Church. These occasions 
often followed prayer-meetings which were 
held by the people themselves and were 
carried on throughout the night. 

One evening the women of the Church 
met for prayer in a Fingo hut. Mr. Davidson 
and his daughter and Miss Moir went over 
and entered, and sat with the natives on the 
floor. The place was dimly lighted by a 
candle and a lamp, and in the rows of dark, 
intent faces they saw many of the school 
children. Some of the women were in tears; 
one grew so excited that she overturned the 
lamp. When the missionaries left at ten 
o'clock the meeting was in full progress. 

In the early hours of the morning Miss 
Moir was awakened by the sound of weeping, 
and discovered that it came from the people, 



SCHOOL AND KRAAL 55 

who were marching in the darkness from the 
hut to the Church. Many were in deep 
distress and crying out to God. At half -past 
four Mr. Davidson and Miss Moir went up 
with candles, and the missionary held a 
short service and then advised all to go home. 
They left, but gathered again in the hut, 
and continued until morning in prayer. 
Some hours later, when Miss Moir was in 
school, which was held in the Church, the 
women who had been at the meeting entered 
the building. School was dismissed, the 
bell was rung, and another prayer-service 
was held. Mr. Davidson asked all who 
wished to give themselves to Christ to stand 
up, and forty did so. 

On another occasion the church bell was 
heard ringing at one o'clock in the morning. 
Mrs. Davidson and Miss Moir rose and went 
to the church, and found a company labour- 
ing under great excitement. Men were on 
their knees praying fervently. One was 
huddled at the door weeping. A woman in 
heathen dress with a baby on her back cried 
aloud, " Lamb of God, take away my sins ! " 
Mrs. Davidson addressed and quieted them, 
and they gradually dispersed. 



VII 

ON THE EDGE OF REBELLION 

The country had never quite settled down 
to conditions of peace, and there were 
occasions when the outlook caused anxiety. 
One night when Mr. Davidson was at an out- 
station, and Mrs. Davidson and Miss Moir 
were alone in the manse, a wild cat en- 
deavoured to gain entrance into the fowl- 
house. At midnight Mrs. Davidson arose 
and opened her window and shouted in the 
endeavour to frighten the animal away. 
Then fearing that Miss Moir would be 
alarmed she went to her room and explained. 

" Oh," was the calm reply, " I thought 
the rebels had come and were murdering 
you, and I was just waiting my turn!" 

After the Zulu uprising the Cape Govern- 
ment thought it wise in the interests of 
peace, to disarm all natives throughout the 
country. The Basuto tribe refused to comply 
with the requirement and hostilities ensued. 

56 



ON THE EDGE OF REBELLION 57 

The disaffection extended to the territory 
adjoining Fingoland, occupied by the Tembu 
and Pondomisi clans, the boundary of which 
was only three hours' ride from Paterson. 

Towards the close of 1880 rumours of 
rebellion began to reach the manse. The 
Fingoes grew alarmed, for in such racial 
conflicts they were always classed with the 
Europeans. " What can we do ? " asked a 
woman. " We have been disarmed. The 
minister will need to pray hard for us." 

Then news came of a magistrate having 
been treacherously slain, of white traders 
and Fingoes being murdered, of shops being 
plundered and wrecked, and of refugees 
escaping over the border. All available 
forces were mobilised, and mounted police 
patrolled the district. As an attack was 
expected, the party at the manse were 
ordered to be ready for instant flight. They 
buried their valuables in the garden, made 
up a change of clothes, and placed their 
coats and ulsters where they could be swiftly 
picked up. 

Mr. Davidson, however, was unwilling to 
leave unless he were driven out by force. 
He had been through one war already, and 
was not afraid. He held Communion and 
took as his text, " Should such a man as I 



58 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

flee ? " "I prefer," he said, " to die at my 
post of duty." When the levies departed 
for the front the women of the district went 
up to a mountain overlooking the rendezvous 
to watch and pray. 

From the out-station of Lutuli, within an 
hour's ride of the enemy, came a request that 
Communion might also be dispensed there 
before the men left for Tembuland. Mr. 
and Mrs. Davidson at once responded to the 
appeal, and Miss Moir accompanied them. 
They found a large company gathered, in- 
cluding many heathen, with badges on, 
ready for action. 

As the service proceeded, a little girl, the 
daughter of the chief, tiptoed into the church, 
and approaching her father who was officiat- 
ing as an elder, whispered something in his 
ear. He rose and went up to Mr. Davidson. 

" Make haste," he said, " a mounted 
messenger has brought word that fighting 
has begun and we must go." 

The heathen men left the building, and 
saddled the horses while Communion was 
dispensed, the chief performing his duties as 
calmly as on an ordinary occasion. 

Then the women gathered round their 
husbands and sons and bade them " Good- 
bye." There was no sighing or sobbing 



ON THE EDGE OF REBELLION 59 

then, but when the company had passed out 
of sight they came together to weep and 
pray. 

On the way back to Paterson the mis- 
sionaries saw huts burning on both sides of 
the border, and encountered many fighting 
men hurrying to the scene as well as Fingoes 
fleeing from the enemy country. 

Some hours later the women of both 
stations met, and ascending a high hill 
remained there in intercession from sunrise 
to sunset. 

The missionaries were perpetually on the 
alert, but the news that was brought of the 
progress of the operations became less alarm- 
ing. Shortly after the paramount chief of 
the Tembus had set fire to a mission-station 
he was killed, and the conflict slackened. 
Then other chiefs surrendered, and the war 
was over. The Mbulu contingent returned 
without loss. 



VIII 

HAIL, RAIN, LIGHTNING 

The work of the station resumed its normal 
course, the only disturbing events being the 
occurrence of droughts, floods, and storms. 
Hailstones on one occasion broke most of 
the windows in the mission-house. The 
dry spells were particularly trying; so high 
did the temperature sometimes rise that 
even the natives were injuriously affected. 
Prayer-meetings for rain were usually held 
at such periods, and Miss Moir's testimony 
as to their effect is remarkable. Once, for 
instance, a drought was being experienced, 
suffering was imminent, and a day of humilia- 
tion and prayer was appointed by the chief 
magistrate of Fingoland. The morning was 
sultry and intensely hot, the wind blowing 
as from a furnace. At a kraal near the 
station Miss Moir held a service, and told 
the people of the efficacy of genuine inter- 
cession. An evangelist began fervently to 

60 



HAIL, RAIN, LIGHTNING 61 

pray that the drought would break. As he 
went on, a peal of thunder was heard, rain 
began to fall, and Miss Moir was drenched 
before she reached the manse. 

After a period of scorching heat a thunder- 
storm broke over Mbulu. The lightning 
played vividly about the station, and the 
thunder crashed and rolled with long rever- 
berations down the valley. After one terrific 
peal came the cry, " The church is on fire ! " 
There was a rush to the building, but the 
natives were afraid to venture near. When 
rain began to pour down an attempt was 
made to save some of the furnishings; one 
man seized the clock, another the Bible and 
copy-books, others the seats and door; but 
all else was consumed. 

It was a disaster, but not irremediable. 
The people at once resolved to proceed with 
the erection of a new and better building. 
With the self-denial which has always been 
characteristic of the Christian members of 
the tribe, they gave freely of their time, 
labour, and money. They quarried the 
stones and provided oxen to convey these 
to the site. They offered gifts large and 
small. The children brought every penny 
they saved. Two boys of ten who went a 
long day's journey with a message received 



62 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

a shilling for their trouble. Tired and 
hungry, they appeared at the mission-house 
and asked for two sixpences in exchange. 
Next morning at school they tendered a 
sixpence each " to build the church." Be- 
kiwe received Is. 6d. to provide herself with 
a new jacket. Before going to buy it, she 
also handed in a sixpence. 

When the foundation-stone was laid, a 
horse, sheep, and other live-stock were cheer- 
fully given. The spirit of the people was 
amusingly shown by a competition which 
took place between a native teacher and his 
mother-in-law. She put down a penny. He 
laid down a threepenny piece. She capped 
it with another penny. He placed a three- 
penny piece on that. And so the friendly 
contest went on until her tenth and last 
penny was gone; but not to be outdone, she 
went and brought half a dozen eggs and set 
them down. 

Contributions in kind were often given to 
the mission. A woman once appeared with 
a pot and bundle on her back. She laid 
down the pot, lifted the lid, and let out four 
chickens. Then, opening the bundle, she 
released the mother-hen, saying: "Take 
them; it is my offering to the Lord." When 
the church at the out-station of Incisininde 



HAIL, RAIN, LIGHTNING 63 

was opened, one teacher gave <£l for himself 
and a sheep for his boy; another, a clock; 
a third, window-blinds; a fourth, pennies 
equal to the number of his scholars — 120. 
A heathen chief in Highland cloak and ear- 
rings said : "I give a sheep for my first 
wife, a sheep for my second wife, a sheep for 
my third wife, a sheep for my fourth wife, 
and a sheep for myself." Many gave again 
and again. The total amount received on 
that occasion was <£120. 



The three years for which Miss Moir had 
engaged herself were at an end. According 
to Mr. Davidson she had done splendid work, 
and he was sorry to lose her. So were the 
people. They came to bid her farewell, 
giving her " tickies " — threepenny-pieces — 
to keep them in remembrance. One of 
these was also sent to their old missionary, 
Mr. Sclater, with a message: Ci Abahlolokazi 
baka Esigubudweni ba - bulisa Umfundisi 
Slatelli pesheza kolwandle, kakulu " — " The 
widow women of Esigubudweni greet Rev. 
Mr. Sclater over the sea very much." Two 
little boys in shirts shyly presented her with 
a shilling, " to buy food for the way." 

She received two quaint addresses, one 
from the scholars, 115 in number, and one 



64 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

from the teacher. The latter, referring to 
her " humble heart," said " Miss Moir was 
so kind that I had almost forgotten she was 
a white person. She didn't show any differ- 
ence in colour for the whole of the three 
years she was here." He praised her for 
being so good a mother to the " little dirty 
Fingo children," and then he drew a picture 
of how " their little eyes " would be gazing 
away in the direction of Kei looking for the 
return of "their good kind Miss Moir — in 
vain." 



IX 

THE END OF HER ROMANCE 

She reached Scotland to find her old romance 
risen, like a ghost from the past, to mock her 
with the thought of what might have been. 
The mystery of the broken relationship had 
been solved. The explanation was simple 
and no blame attached to the lovers. It had 
been a case of jealousy and intercepted 
correspondence. 

The banker learnt the reason when it was 
too late. To his dismay he found that she 
was engaged to Mr. Forsyth, who now came 
from South America to claim his bride. The 
tragedy of unfulfilled dreams was hastening 
to its close. 

After spending a time at Cairneyhill Miss 
Moir was married to Mr. Forsyth in Glasgow, 
and the couple went to reside in London. 
But the lure of the gold-fields continued to 
draw the mining prospector. At this period 
the Transvaal was coming into notice as a 

65 



66 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

gold-producing area. The first really suc- 
cessful field in South Africa was that near 
Lydenburg — rich alluvial ground from which 
nuggets many pounds in weight were being 
unearthed. Mr. Forsyth made up his mind 
to try his fortune there, and a few months 
later the couple were settled at the pictur- 
esque mining town among the mountains. 

Their married life was brief. Little more 
than a year afterwards Mr. Forsyth was 
fording the Komati River on horseback 
when his saddle shifted in mid-stream, and 
he was swept away by the flood-waters and 
drowned. The news was broken to Mrs. 
Forsyth by two members of the Dutch 
Reformed Presbyterian Church, the elder of 
whom slipped into her hand a paper on which 
was written, " Thy Maker is thy Husband." 

Her life again seemed to lie in ruins about 
her, but there was one bright gleam in the 
darkness. She received a letter from her 
former lover offering her a home with his 
two sisters. Though deeply touched by his 
thoughfulness and devotion, she felt she 
could not accept his bounty, and he ac- 
quiesced. A few hasty lines which he sent her 
reveal his poignant sorrow and resignation: 

We may not meet to tell the tale 
Of all our griefs and fears, 



THE END OF HER ROMANCE 67 

To mark the ravage time has wrought 

Within three dreary years. 

We may not meet in this cold world 

But we shall meet above, 

And for the pains we've suffered here 

We'll reap abundant love. 

We may not meet to tell the tale 

Of those we trusted long ago, 

Who stood by us in times of peace 

But left us in our woe. 

It may be added that some years later, 
having retired in ill-health, he died in 
Edinburgh. Thus ended our heroine's one 
real romance, though its memory, at once 
bitter and sweet, had always power to move 
her strong, reserved nature to its depths. 

She faced the future with a brave heart. 
Her income would only be £40 per annum, 
and it was not possible to do much on that. 
She could, of course, return to Scotland and 
spend the remainder of her days in some 
narrow and obscure position; but her nature 
craved a less conventional outlet, and her 
thoughts turned longingly again to the 
mission-field. She would never be able to 
emulate the missionaries, with their extensive 
spheres and great range of service, but she 
felt in all humility that she might be able to 
fill a niche somewhere — perhaps undertake 



68 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

the kind of work a Biblewoman did at home. 
She was willing to go forth, not knowing or 
caring whither, and make her home alone in 
the desert with only the heathen around her. 

A letter was soon on its way to the Mission 
Board of the United Presbyterian Church in 
Scotland offering her services as a voluntary 
worker for Kafraria. She made it quite 
clear that she would ask nothing from the 
resources of the Church. 

" I should not like to displace any worker 
now engaged," she wrote; "I only wish to 
help the cause of God with my time, influence, 
and means. I will go where there is the 
greatest need, where a missionary is away 
on furlough, where there is a missionary 
family in sickness or trouble, or where there 
is an out-station with native chief without 
a missionary. If the Board will point out 
the place where my time will be most use- 
fully employed, I am ready at once to go 
and begin." 

So fine and disinterested an offer was 
accepted with gratitude, and she was asked 
to go, in the first place, to Paterson. Selling 
her house, she returned by the new route 
through Portuguese East Africa to Delagoa 
Bay, and thence to East London and Pater- 
son, which she reached early in the year 1886. 



PART II 

THE HEAT AND BURDEN OF THE 
DAY 

Age 41-67 



IN THE DEN OF "WOLVES" 

Mr. and Mrs. Davidson were glad to see 
their old assistant once more. Her face was 
shadowed by the suffering of her experiences, 
but her smile was as calm and sweet as ever. 
They hoped she would settle down into her 
former work, and were disappointed to hear 
that she had determined on a new line of 
service. She wished, she said, to be placed 
alone in some out-district in connection with 
the mission — preferably the most backward 
region — where she could have a definite bit 
of work to do and be responsible for it. 

There was no need to discuss where that 
was. The thoughts of the missionary at 
once travelled to it — Xolobe 1 about ten 
miles away to the north-west, an isolated 
" pocket " of heathenism between the Xolobe 
and the Kei Rivers. He recalled the route 
to it — the long stretch through a rocky canon, 

1 The " X " in Xolobe is pronounced with a click. 
71 



72 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

the steep climb up the mountain-side covered 
with scrub, the rough ride through open 
country, the descent by sheep and cattle- 
track into another valley, and then the little 
knob of ground with the dark circular huts 
of the natives mottling the landscape round. 

Half -jestingly he said, " Well, there is 
Xolobe." 

" Send me there," she replied. 

He looked astonished. 

" But," he remonstrated, " you know what 
it is — a wild region of unbroken heathenism. 
The people are the off-scourings of the emi- 
grant Fingoes whom degradation and badness 
have kept together. * Wolves,' one of my 
elders calls them. For years I have wrought 
there with some of my best agents but have 
made no headway amongst the rude and bar- 
barous population. They are lazy, liars, and 
notorious thieves. Again and again I have 
tried, and again and again, on account of 
the opposition, I have had to close the school 
and leave the place to itself. It would never 
do for you to go there alone." 

" I will go at once," she said. It was ex- 
actly the kind of service which appealed to 
her faith and courage. 

He regarded her thoughtfully. She was 



IN THE DEN OF " WOLVES " 73 

strong and capable, a woman of experience — 
she was now forty-one years of age — and 
knew her own power and capacity for holding 
out. It was possible that she would succeed 
where others had failed. 

He made one more objection. 

" It would be a poor sort of life for you; 
it would be very lonely; it would be giving 
up too much." 

But she only smiled as knowing better, for 
she thought of some lines by Dr. Walter C. 
Smith which she had learnt by heart and 
were a kind of motto guiding all her actions: 

All through life I see a Cross 
Where sons of God yield up their breath; 
There is no gain except by loss, 
There is no life except by death. 
There is no vision but by faith ; 
No glory but by bearing shame, 
No justice but by taking blame: 
And that Eternal Passion saith, 
" Be emptied of glory and right and name." 

Her confidence impressed and fortified 
him. The longer he thought of the idea the 
more it appealed to him, and at last he de- 
cided to let her go. 

When the project became known to the 
scattered European residents strong disap- 
proval was expressed. They thought she 



74 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

should not be permitted to take the risk of 
living alone in such an isolated and wild 
locality among a degraded class of natives 
addicted to the worst practices of heath- 
enism. 

Mr. Newton O. Thompson, the magistrate 
of the Tsomo district, was much concerned on 
her behalf, and wondered whether it would 
be wise to allow her to carry out her wish. 
" The majority of natives," he writes, " be- 
longed to the class known as ' reds.' To 
make matters worse many of these people 
had no desire to be interfered with, and con- 
sequently regarded the coming of a lady- 
missionary into the location with suspicion. 
Some were much addicted to beer-drinking, 
and on such occasions were anything but 
pleasant neighbours." 

Mr. Davidson, however, said that his own 
doubts had vanished and he thought there 
need be no anxiety as to her safety, and this 
settled the matter. 

Packing her baggage into a wagon and 
taking one of the Paterson elders with her 
she set off, and, after a toilsome journey, 
arrived at Xolobe. Surveying the conditions 
of the district, she saw that all Christian 
work and influence had gone to pieces, and 
standing in the midst of the moral desolation 
her heart sank within her. She wondered. . . 



IN THE DEN OF " WOLVES " 75 

"How many Christians are there?" she 
asked the elder. 

" One," he replied. 

Taking her Bible, she turned over its 
pages thoughtfully and read in Ezekiel: 

"The heathen that are left round about 
you shall know that I the Lord build the 
ruined places, and plant that that was deso- 
late: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will 
do it? 

And then there came into her mind a vision 
of Xolobe won for Christ, and from that 
moment she never faltered. 

A lover of nature, she was helped by the 
beauty of her environment. The mission 
reserve was situated on a lip of land sur- 
rounded by majestic precipices and steep 
hill-sides covered here and there with patches 
of woodland or bush, and was almost com- 
pletely isolated by a couple of streams which, 
after a series of minor falls, met and flowed 
on to join the Great Kei River. Down the 
valley her eye rested upon high hills faced 
with rugged rock, clustering kraals, fertile 
fields, and herds of cattle and flocks of sheep 
and goats tended by native boys. The scarlet 
aloe relieved the sombre greens by its splashes 
of brilliant colour. As the fleeting changes 
of light and shadow settled into the soft 
tones of evening the fierce and naked fronts 



76 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

of the heights were lit up with glory, orange 
and rose and purple, and then all suddenly- 
faded into the darkness and stillness of the 
night with wreaths of white mist trailing 
mysteriously in the dimness and lights glim- 
mering here and there through the open door- 
way of huts. 

She lay down that night in a Kafir hut 
on the tops of the boxes she had brought 
with her, and covered herself with a shawl. 
But she could not sleep, and was early up 
and about in the morning. Xolobe in the 
soft clear light looked to her " a gem of 
beauty," and with a more buoyant spirit she 
began that patient service which was to last, 
without pause or respite, for thirty years. 



II 

ADVENTURES 

Her first task was to become acquainted 
with the people and get into touch with the 
children, and so introduce an atmosphere of 
confidence that would prepare the way for 
settled work in school and church. Remem- 
bering Tiyo Soga's words that as a race 
the Kafirs prefer to be drawn, not driven, 
she made no stir, used no pressure, but 
moved about quietly, with soft speech and 
observant eyes, talking with this one and 
that one, and silently laying her plans. She 
had the patient, persistent, imperturbable man- 
ner characteristic of the true African pioneer, 
that unresting, unhastening movement which 
we find best exhibited in the " forward tread " 
of Dr. Livingstone. 

Her method was to visit the huts, carrying 
some simple medicines with her as a sure 
means of winning an entrance. She would 

77 



78 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

appear suddenly in some kraal where the 
men were sitting, wrapped in their terra- 
cotta blankets, smoking and gossiping, give 
them a pleasant word, and enter the nearest 
hut, stooping through the low doorway from 
which the smoke was issuing. A wife, red 
handkerchief on head, would be attending 
to the evening meal. The fire occupied the 
centre, and upon it would be set a pot con- 
taining Kafir corn, while a boy or girl, 
clothed only in a necklace of beads, would 
perhaps be roasting mealies from the cob. 
She would find out the circumstances of the 
family, talk sympathetically about them, and 
then read and pray. 

The faith of the sick in her powers was 
pathetic. One old blind man besought her 
to lay her hands upon his eyes and restore 
his sight. " That power," she said to him, 
"belongs to God alone: but I can show you 
how you can get the eyes of your soul 
opened." 

Sometimes she would address the groups 
in the open, but the painted men looked upon 
her only as a diverting curiosity. Some were 
polite and interested, some scowled, others 
were indifferent. When she read the Bible, 
told them about Christ, and prayed, they 
laughed. To them her religion was absurdly 



ADVENTURES 79 

childish, and they treated it with amused 
scorn. 

Ear and wide she went. No journey was 
too long or toilsome if sick folk called for 
her services. She was asked to go to a spot 
which a native evangelist had told her was 
inaccessible. " There are no roads to it," 
he assured her. She quietly gathered what 
was necessary and set out. On the way she 
passed a hut where the children ran terror- 
stricken from the sight of a white face. 

Some of the places were twenty miles 
away, too remote to be visited in one day, 
and she had often to spend nights in the 
kraals. A message from a big man called 
Gaka took her to his home on the flat of 
a mountain top. A steep path bordered 
by wild geraniums, zinnias, and gladioli led 
to it. In a hut Gaka's mother was lying 
sick of a fever amongst dirt and squalor. 
'Smoyana chased out the noisy children, did 
what she could for the comfort of the suf- 
ferer, and read and prayed. Then she gath- 
ered the boys and girls about her and taught 
them. A man came in and was interested 
in her talk; he had never heard of God and 
did not know who He was. 

At sunset the women returned from their 
" gardens," or fields, where they had been at 



80 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

work since daybreak, and set about making 
the evening meal — Kafir corn, pounded and 
boiled, served with amasi or sour milk. This 
was the hour of gossip, and the man who did 
not know God kept the company shaking 
with laughter by retailing the scandal of 
the day. 'Smoyana, however, created her 
opportunity, and spoke to them of deeper 
things. After prayer she was glad to retire 
to a hut where the women, the children, and 
a couple of kids were her companions. She 
slept on a mat with her clothes on. At dawn 
she left for another long journey to attend 
some sick children. 

In these early days her position was not 
free from peril. One Sunday afternoon she 
was at a distance from Xolobe when a thun- 
derstorm threatened and she turned her steps 
homewards. 

In a lonely hollow amongst the hills two 
strange men appeared from amongst the 
scrub and began to follow her. She felt 
instinctively that they meant mischief and, 
turning, she eyed the one who was nearest, 
a tall powerful fellow whose blanket was 
slung over his shoulder and who carried a 
huge club. His face was that of a fiend; 
she thought she had never seen so repulsive 
a creature. 



ADVENTURES 8 1 

" You seem to be in a hurry," she said. 

"What have you got there?" he de- 
manded. 

" Bibles." 

Remembering that she had been told not 
to allow a native to walk behind her if she 
feared violence, she commanded him to go 
on before. He did so but kept near. 

Looking behind, she observed that the 
other man had come up noiselessly and was 
at her back. She felt a thrill of alarm and 
looked round for a way of escape. At that 
moment a local native suddenly appeared 
out of a path above them driving cattle. 
Her expression of relief made the men turn, 
and seeing the herdsman they scowled and 
after a moment's hesitation made off as 
quickly as they had come. 

When Mrs. Davidson was told of the 
incident she remarked, " They meant to mur- 
der and rob you, of course," a surmise which 
was subsequently confirmed. 

One Sunday she had been attending the 
Communion at Paterson and had been de- 
tained and it was five o'clock in the after- 
noon ere she left to trudge the ten miles 
back. Darkness fell but she kept on. At 
last she lost the roughly-defined track and 
went wandering amongst the rocks and scrub. 



82 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

It was impossible to tell where she was, and 
she abandoned the attempt to proceed and 
took shelter for the night behind a boulder. 
The hours passed slowly; she wearied for 
the dawn. With the light she discovered that 
she had been resting on the edge of a preci- 
pice. One step more and she would have 
been killed. 

She tramped to Xolobe and took up her 
duties as if nothing had happened. 



Ill 

THE POWERS OF DARKNESS 

In her going in and out amongst the people 
she came more closely into contact with the 
conditions of primitive native life than she 
had hitherto done. Outwardly she found 
them picturesque enough. 

The majority of the Fingoes were not 
black but dark brown in skin, and their 
bodies, shining under the fat and red ochre 
or clay rubbed upon it, looked like polished 
bronze. The blanket was the sole article of 
clothing of the men, and even this was often 
thrown aside in warm weather. It was 
greased and coloured in the same way as 
their skin and embroidered with blue and 
white beads. The dress of the women was 
a skirt fastened round the waist, with some- 
times a shawl wound over the upper part of 
the body and a coloured handkerchief or 
fillet round the head. Both men and women 
decorated themselves with necklets and arm- 



84 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

lets of beads, shells, copper, ivory and wild 
beasts' teeth, and the men usually carried 
a knobkerry or stick. 

The women drew out her sympathies in 
a special degree. There was much simple 
dignity about them. As she met them with 
their babies tucked into a fold of their blan- 
kets on their back, or carrying head loads 
of wood or green maize and other produce, 
she admired their symmetry and grace. But 
they were practically little better than chat- 
tels, being acquired in marriage by the high- 
est bidder of stock. This is a custom which, 
on account of some advantages it possesses 
in existing circumstances, is not altogether 
condemned, but is bound to disappear under 
the continued impact of Christian ideals. The 
wives were the real workers in the native 
hive, being not only domestic drudges but 
all-day toilers in the fields, while their hus- 
bands only performed some perfunctory tasks 
and lounged and smoked. Often cheerful 
enough, their faces had that look which one 
usually sees in non-Christian lands — the pa- 
tient but lustreless expression as of an un- 
awakened soul, which contrasts so notably 
with the bright and intelligent aspect of 
Christian womanhood. 



THE POWERS OF DARKNESS 85 

Involuntarily, however, she penetrated 
deeper beneath the surface of native life, 
and saw heathenism in all its naked effron- 
tery, and then she began more fully to real- 
ize the tremendous difficulty of the task she 
had undertaken. It was the rites and prac- 
tices of centuries she was challenging. 

The system of religion she did not fear; 
it was merely a superstitious belief in goblins, 
demons, and ancestral spirits, which, potent 
enough in its practical effect on their lives, 
would gradually disappear before the light 
of the truth. 

Nor did she dread the witch-doctors, men 
often of great cunning and ability, always 
a powerful influence for evil, who played on 
the weakness and follies of native nature, 
and terrorised young and old. 

What she did fear was the terrible hold 
which the tribal customs had over their bodies 
and souls. 

There was, first of all, polygamy, regarded 
partly as a tribal duty in former days to 
maintain the fighting strength of the armies, 
but an arrangement appealing to the self- 
indulgent sense of a barbarous people. It 
created a formidable obstacle to Christian 
discipleship, for, when a man wished to join 
the Church it meant that he must separate 



86 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

himself from all his wives save one, and 
there were obvious hardships involved in such 
a proceeding. Many would have gladly ac- 
cepted the gospel from the first if they had 
been allowed to retain their wives, but the 
law of the Church was inexorable and though 
they might be hearers they could not be 
admitted to membership. 

But polygamy was as nothing to the 
hideous initiation ceremonies through which 
every boy and girl had to pass into the stage 
of manhood and womanhood. In the case of 
the lads there was the rite of circumcision, 
which, in itself, was not by some very se- 
riously objected to, but it was associated 
with practices of the most immoral character. 
During the process of initiation these noviti- 
ates were covered with white clay and dressed 
in grass skirts and masks. In the case of 
girls intonjane ceremonies marked the corre- 
sponding period of isolation. 

No description of the rites is possible; it 
is sufficient to say that when the young peo- 
ple emerged from their course of " training " 
and license they had lost for ever that inno- 
cence and purity which are the beauty and 
the crown of life. 

Another curse was beer-drinking. No 
doubt it was the only method by which the 




^t^,i 




^^ 



A GROUP OF FINGO WOMEN 




A BOYS' "INITIATION" DANCE 



THE POWERS OF DARKNESS 87 

natives could give expression to their social 
instincts, but it led to every kind of vicious- 
ness and immorality. Much of the time of 
the women was taken up with preparing the 
drink— in beating and grinding the corn, and 
making, boiling, and straining the stuff. In 
her visits to the kraals Mrs. Forsyth came 
across many a carousal. The people were 
gathered together in huts which were 
crowded to suffocation, each man and woman 
taking long draughts of the liquor amidst a 
babel of confused talk and laughter. This 
would go on for days and nights, whilst the 
children went neglected or unprovided with 
food. 

Such were the peculiar evils which our 
heroine found entrenched in the district she 
had come to evangelise. When everyone, 
young and old, was steeped in sensualism, 
what hope was there that she, one lone 
woman, could work a saving change? How 
could she stem the raging current of un- 
cleanness flowing as fiercely and irresistibly 
as a river in flood? 

She shivered as she thought of it all and 
of her own helplessness, but she took refuge 
in the assurance that with God everything 
is possible, and relying on His guidance and 
help she braced herself for the struggle. She 



88 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

passionately desired to succeed. " I ask Xo- 
lobe for Christ," was a pathetic sentence in 
one of her reports. 

Her greatest weapon was prayer. She 
was not content with petitions in general 
terms, but made definite intercession for par- 
ticular persons, and she begged her corre- 
spondents to follow the same plan. " I ask 
for prayer for so and so," was the burden 
of her letters. In a poem which appeared in 
the juvenile magazine of the Church she 
voiced the cry of the children of Xolobe to 
the children of Scotland: 

We lie outside the Shepherd's fold — 
The night is drear and dark and cold, 
While you are safe and warm within, 
Guarded and fenced and hedged from sin, 
Oh pray for us! 

" Oh pray for us," was her cry to the end. 



IV 

THE SIEGE OF THE CHIEF 

Her most stubborn fight was with Mnyila, 
the chief of Xolobe, a typical " red," con- 
forming to all the customs of his tribe with 
the fanaticism of a zealot. He set a bad 
example to his people who were frequently 
embroiled in tribal fights. On one occasion 
the affray was so serious that the authorities 
arrested and imprisoned his followers in a 
body, and fined them to the extent of £100. 
This sum was promptly paid, but the punish- 
ment did not stop the vendetta. A kraal 
near the mission-house was surrounded by a 
wild body of men, who attempted to stab the 
police sergeant despatched to arrest them. 
Afraid for Mrs. Forsyth's safety, an old 
heathen came and said to her: 

" Ma, these bad people of yours like to 
fight; you must rise up and go away from 
them." 

" But," she said, " if they are bad they 

89 



90 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

need me to stay and help to make them 
better." 

From the first Mnyila avoided her, would 
not go near her meetings, and forbade his 
people to go. His principal wife Nomonti 
was of the same mind. It was one of her 
huts which 'Smoyana was occupying, and she 
used often to come in and talk to her about 
the strange manners and customs of the white 
people across the sea. A very clever and 
intelligent woman, she parried all the mis- 
sionary's frontal attacks and would have noth- 
ing to do with her religion. 

But it was the chief himself to whom 
'Smoyana laid siege with the deliberation and 
determination of a general assailing a fort- 
ress. She paid him surprise visits, and when 
she caught him talked to him with uncom- 
promising directness, denouncing his sins, and 
at the same time persuasively presenting the 
better way. He listened with genial equa- 
nimity, and when she left turned with added 
zest to his revelries. 

Once she found the kraal folk engaged in 
indecent dancing. The chief kept out of her 
way; the others turned a deaf ear to her 
reproofs. She approached the head wife: 

" Why are you doing these dreadful things 
on God's Sabbath day?" she asked. 



THE SIEGE OF THE CHIEF 91 

" Ma," was the reply, " you do not under- 
stand; if we do not observe our customs 
sickness will come upon us." 

'Smoyana opened her Bible. " This is 
God's book," she said, "and He says this": 
— fearlessly quoting accusing passages and 
throwing them at her like bombshells. 

The chief's eldest son was often present 
when 'Smoyana attacked him; he had some 
conception of the truth, and once he was so 
overcome by the visitor's solemn admonitions 
that he burst into tears and left the hut. 
'Smoyana had hopes of him, but he, too, 
shrank from the surrender of his heathen 
practices; the sacrifice was too great. 

She was well aware how difficult it was 
for these men to change their manner of life; 
it involved their whole social status and fu- 
ture. A native lost his position in his tribe 
when he abandoned the customs of his fath- 
ers; there was a heavy pecuniary sacrifice 
in the abandonment of polygamy. Those 
who renounced the initiation ceremony were 
considered apostates to tribal tradition and 
virtue, and treated with contempt and de- 
rided as " boys." 

But she realised that a beginning must be 
made, and that every convert rendered it 
easier for others to take the step, until the 



92 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

time came when a Christian community could 
be formed and Christian ideals dominate the 
land. To win a chief would be a great vic- 
tory, and the influence of such an event would 
spread far and wide. She never, therefore, 
grew tired of trying to save Mnyila, though 
he continued to make determined attacks with 
the object of suppressing her work. Once, 
too cowardly to come himself, he sent his 
brother with the plain intimation that he 
would be glad to see her leave the district. 
She ignored the request, and merely re- 
doubled her efforts to storm his pagan heart. 
No case was hopeless in her eyes. And she 
had her reward. He became less hostile, and 
at last sent her a message: 

" Speak much to my people, 'Smoyana, 
and teach men about God, because we are 
all wrong." 

Imprisoned for theft, he was deposed. 
Afterwards he became very ill, and, much 
softened, he humbly accepted Christ and died 
converted. Matole reigned in his stead, a 
heathen, but more favourable to the mission 
work. 



PERSECUTION 

It was in a small wattle-and-daub building 
which had been erected in the time of Mr. 
Sclater that Mrs. Forsyth gathered the few 
who were weary of their old ways and brave 
enough to seek after better. Though uphill 
and often disheartening work, her courage 
and lovingkindness never failed, and one 
after another of the people dropped in and 
became interested and friendly. One heathen 
actually presented her with a threepenny-bit 
to help the cause. She sent it to Scotland 
with the remark : " Perhaps this red man's 
offering may make some of the people at 
home who give pence and halfpence to the 
collection try to give a little more." 

But when she ventured to open a day- 
school in the same building the opposition 
broke out afresh, and she encountered end- 
less difficulties and disappointments. The 
local witch-doctor was her most powerful 

93 



94 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

enemy, and incited the whole district against 
her. 

" Heathenism is rampant," she wrote to 
her friends at home. " Darkness covers the 
earth and gross darkness the people. Im- 
agine seventeen children in one family whose 
father hinders them from attending school, 
but is ready to allow them any sinful in- 
dulgence. When I expostulate with them 
they say : * We do not know it is sin ; our 
parents teach us these things.' " 

But again her quiet persistence wore down 
all hostility; in twos and threes the children 
began to attend, and soon she had seventeen 
girls and fifteen boys, whom she taught writ- 
ing, arithmetic, geography, and grammar, im- 
parting also to the giris some knowledge 
of sewing and general housework. They 
came in red clay attire, a bayi or cotton sheet 
which the boys wrapped round their bodies, 
and the girls tied at the waist with a straw 
cord, fixing it below with buckles into a kind 
of petticoat. 

They were wonderfully eager to learn, and 
many walked long distances and arrived foot- 
sore and weary. Perhaps it was the singing 
that attracted them, for all Kafirs, young 
and old, are passionately fond of music, and 
they enjoyed nothing so much as the learning 



PERSECUTION 95 

of the Kafir hymns 'Smoyana taught them — 
those simple melodies which appeal to Chris- 
tian children all over the world. 

But the teaching had its effect. When 
visiting a heathen kraal she asked if a little 
boy who came to the school ever spoke about 
anything he learnt there. " Yes," replied 
his mother, " he takes his elder brother aside 
at nights and says, ' Let us pray.' " 

Perhaps, also, it was the singing as much 
as a feeling of curiosity which drew the 
parents from their work in the fields to 
watch the strange proceedings in the little 
mud schoolroom. Some of these thought that 
whatever the motive of the white woman was, 
the effect on the children appeared to be 
good, and they good-naturedly allowed them 
to go; but the majority, jealous for the main- 
tenance of their old ways, continued tacitly 
to oppose the new development. Periods of 
persecution recurred, during which the school 
had to be closed. Attendances often mys- 
teriously dwindled, puzzling the teacher until 
she noticed that the falling away always hap- 
pened after some boy or girl had expressed 
a desire to be a Christian. The first lad con- 
verted was handed over to the tender mer- 
cies of the witch-doctor and forced to re- 



96 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

nounce his faith. When four scholars made 
an open confession that they had accepted 
Christ, every " red " child was taken away 
on some pretext or other. 

" It is a bitter trial," she said, " but we 
cannot lower our standard. We never con- 
ceal our intention, which is, to win Xolobe 
for Christ." 

Then the imposition of a school tax by 
the Government annoyed the people and 
revived the antagonism, and the most prom- 
ising pupils were withdrawn. Other inter- 
ruptions occurred. An outbreak of fever 
stopped the work for months, many of the 
natives and their children fleeing from the 
district in terror of the epidemic. " Still," 
she wrote, " we have reason to thank God 
and take courage. Amidst all our weariness 
and shortcomings we know and feel that He 
is with us." 

" She is working away," wrote Mr. David- 
son at this time, "in a spirit of indomitable 
courage and perseverance. I found her as 
hearty as ever in a school full of children. 
A child has been the means of converting 
the mother, and I baptized them both. It is 
one of the darkest parts of the land where 
I could make no headway till she took it in 
hand." 



PERSECUTION 97 

In 1889 she added the fiftieth name to the 
roll. " I trace all this," she said, " as an 
answer to prayer." 

One day when she had been fighting diffi- 
culties, a passing stranger looked in. " Do 
you remember me? " he asked smilingly. " I 
am one of your old scholars at Paterson." 
He was now the second teacher in the largest 
school in Fingoland. She had a long talk 
with him, found that he had been loyal to 
his training, and always sought to lead the 
children in his care to Christ. His visit was 
like a gleam of sunshine in a grey day, and 
she returned encouraged and invigorated to 
her task. 

Along with the day school she started a 
Sunday School, but this, on account of the 
early morning hour at which she held it not 
suiting Kafir domestic arrangements, was not 
at first so successful. Finding that many 
girls remained about the station in the in- 
terval between the Church services, she 
formed a midday Bible Class for them, which 
came to fulfil very much the same purpose, 
and was one of the most important features 
of the work. None gave her such pleasure 
and satisfaction as this class of raw girlhood, 
over none did she brood with more loving 
and wistful concern. How she toiled to bring 



98 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

the young lives into the safe keeping of her 
Lord! How she brought her simple and 
absolute belief in the efficacy of prayer to 
bear on each doubtful or anxious case! 

In these early days there were three mem- 
bers in particular whom she desired to con- 
vert — Jane, Bertha, and Daisy, all about the 
same age. They were regular in attendance 
and learnt their lessons well, but they would 
not make the change over to a Christian 
life. 'Smoyana employed every means in her 
power to bring them to a decision but in 
vain, and, completely baffled, she was almost 
in despair when she remembered the answer 
given to her by a lady speaker at home whom 
she had asked to reveal the secret of her 
power. The reply was, " This kind goeth 
not forth but by prayer and fasting." She 
chided herself for not realizing this sooner, 
and at once put the principle into practice. 
She fasted a whole day and continued in 
prayer on behalf of the three girls. In the 
following week Jane, the most obstinate of 
the trio, came alone to the candidates' class 
and signified her desire to accept Christ. 
Then when the class met the other two fol- 
lowed her example. 

Such incidents, added to conversions 
amongst women and boys, alarmed the 



PERSECUTION 99 

heathen community, and a common effort 
was soon on foot to stop the secessions from 
tribal use and wont. Women were beaten 
by their husbands again and again because 
they would not renounce the profession of 
Christ which they had made. Two sisters 
had their clothes taken away to prevent 
them attending the meetings, but they ap- 
peared in scanty undress. When they re- 
turned to their homes their indignant mother 
cried, "Go away; we don't want qobokas 
(Christians) to live with us." Another girl 
was scourged by her uncle and thrown out 
of the hut. Mrs. Forsyth took her in and 
tended her with a mother's care. Boys also 
had their clothes and wages seized when they 
showed themselves attracted by the new way 
of life. 

Our heroine had a fierce hatred of injus- 
tice, and the courage of her convictions, and 
she welcomed and protected every runaway 
who fled to her. The station was at this time 
a sanctuary for the outcast and oppressed. 



VI 
THE TYRANNY OF TAKI 

The story of one typical family may be 
given to illustrate the extraordinary ferment 
going on in the district, and the trials which 
the converts, like the early Christians, had 
to suffer at the hands of the persecutors. 

Taki was a caretaker in a store which was 
mysteriously robbed during his master's ab- 
sence. The thieves were never discovered. 
Taki, however, lost his post and looked un- 
happy as if he had something on his mind. 
'Smoyana made a point of visiting him fre- 
quently but he resented her solicitude. 

" Speak to others," he said gruffly, " but 
do not speak to me." 

" Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear 
you, when ye depart, shake off the dust under 
your feet for a testimony against them/' she 
quoted, and rose and left. 

She had not gone far before she heard the 
100 



TKE TYRANNY OF TAKI 101 

daughter running after her calling her back. 
" He bids you return/' she cried. 

When she reached the hut she received a 
grudging apology. 

The daughter, Nomnyaka, a good-looking 
girl of marriageable age, was eager to know 
more of the truth but was afraid of her 
father. One day she bought some cotton 
sheeting and began making clothing. Her 
father came in, gave her a look, and seized 
a sjambok. She fled out of the hut, down to 
the mission-house, he pursuing her with the 
whip. Mrs. Forsyth was out, but the house- 
girls let her in. The father stopped at the 
entrance. When Mrs. Forsyth arrived she 
found the girl trembling and in violent fear. 
She kept her at the station, provided her 
with clothes, and gave her work to do in 
the garden and house, and she joined the 
girls at school, attended the meetings, took 
part in family worship, and was perfectly 
happy. 

By and by a brother-in-law, a witch-doctor, 
took up her case, invited her to go to his 
house, and promised to allow her to wear 
clothes, and freedom to worship God and at- 
tend school. When the father heard of this 
he promptly came and made the same pro- 
posal; naturally he did not want to lose the 



102 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

lobola or dowry he would receive when she 
married, which often amounts to ten head 
of cattle. His offer she accepted, and re- 
turned home, and later was baptized and 
took the name of Kate. 

A Christian widower from another out- 
station then took a fancy to her and they 
were married in Xolobe Church. She made 
a good and industrious wife and a capable 
mother. 

At the marriage a girl in red clay stood 
outside, curious to see the ceremony, but re- 
fusing to go in. She watched the proceed- 
ings through the open window. It Was a 
half-sister of Kate called Raqula, the daugh- 
ter of Taki's second wife. Mrs. Forsyth 
knew her as one who had never been per- 
mitted to come to school, and was never 
seen playing about like other children. When 
at her hut one day she asked her, " Wouldn't 
you like a doll to play with?" "No," was 
the child's reply, " I like to make the house 
nice for mother," and went on with her task 
of pounding and beating the clay floor to 
make it smooth and clean. 

After the marriage of Kate further dis- 
turbances occurred in the family. Raqula's 
mother was converted, and through her in- 
fluence her step-mother and sister were also 



THE TYRANNY OF TAKI 103 

brought in. Her punishment was severe. 
She was driven ruthlessly away, all her fowls 
and belongings were sold, and a new wife 
was installed in her place. Raqula was glad 
to leave the home and live with a heathen 
man some distance away. 

One Sunday morning a young woman in 
European clothes and of happy demeanour 
came to the door of the mission-house. Her 
face seemed familiar to Mrs. Forsyth. It 
was Raqula, converted, clothed, and in her 
right mind. She had come back with her 
husband and little son to reside in Xolobe, 
and soon entered the candidates' class, a 
humble and industrious disciple. She be- 
came a member and was regularly married 
in Xolobe Church, and brought two children 
to be baptized. 

Kate's eldest sister Jane had also gone 
to school. A quiet, diligent plodder, she was 
soon able to read the New Testament, and 
the beauty of the life portrayed there won 
her heart. Casting about in her mind how 
to procure clothes, she collected bundles of 
wood which she sold to Mrs. Forsyth. She 
had nearly amassed sufficient when her father 
got wind of her intention, seized her hard- 
earned savings, withdrew her from school, 
and ordered her not even to think about the 



104 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

new customs. She had no alternative but to 
submit, and she grew up to womanhood a 
heathen. 

After she married, her husband went to 
work at the mines and met with a serious 
injury. Jane was afraid he would die, and 
the teaching she had received from Mrs. 
Forsyth came back to her mind, and she 
turned in her trouble to God and was an- 
swered according to her faith. Becoming 
a candidate at another out-station she was 
baptized along with her children. 

The leavening process went on. Another 
of Taki's wives was moved to renounce her 
" red " allegiance, but the position was made 
so hard for her that she recanted. 

Raqula's cousin, Nosimanga, was married 
to an old witch-doctor and was the mother 
of two intelligent boys. At a prayer-meeting 
at her home she was brought to Christ and 
soon learnt to read. Her husband, strangely 
enough, put no hindrance in her way; he 
even accompanied her occasionally to church, 
though he kept to his own fashion of life. 

Taki's cruelty increased with these re- 
peated invasions of his heathen peace. A 
daughter-in-law was won over by Mrs. 
Forsyth, but her husband remained obdurate. 
She was determined, however, to bring up 



THE TYRANNY OF TAKI 105 

her infant daughter Su-pi as a Christian, and 
she clothed her in the new way. When her 
husband died suddenly her friends jeered 
at her and said she was being punished. 
They persecuted her and boycotted her but 
she remained firm. Then Taki took her in 
hand. One day he caught her on her knees 
praying for herself, her child, and her heathen 
friends. Infuriated he snatched up an 
assegai and threatened to spear her and kill 
her if she did not recant. She was so alarmed 
that she ran out of the kraal and fled over 
the hills. For a whole week she wandered 
in the direction of her old home with practic- 
ally nothing to eat, and then fell dead from 
starvation and over-fatigue. 

When the news reached Taki's kraal he 
despatched a horseman to bring back the 
child, who was stripped of her clothing and 
smeared with red clay, and so received into 
heathenism. By and by, however, she was 
allowed to go to school and developed into 
one of the best scholars, won many prizes, 
and entered the candidates' class. 

Another daughter-in-law lost her husband 
and turned in her sorrow to Christ. Taki 
threatened her and she went to 'Smoyana, 
who took up her case and summoned the 
man to her presence. 



106 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

" Taki," she said, " do you like your 
sheep ? and count them ? Do you know 
when you lose one or find one ? For there 
was a man who had a hundred sheep and he 
lost one, and he went after it a long time, 
and he was wounded while he sought it, and 
it was found in your kraal when you were 
not there. And people said, ' Taki will not 
be willing to give it up to the owner.' But I 
said, ' I think he will ; I shall see him and 
try.' " 

By this time Taki was sitting bolt-upright, 
his face working, his eyes staring. 

" Taki," she continued, " do not be afraid. 
I am speaking a parable to you. God is the 
owner of the sheep that was lost. The sheep 
is your daughter-in-law whom you have 
forbidden to come to Christ. Will you give 
her to her lawful owner ? " 

Somewhat relieved Taki replied sullenly, 
" I have no power over her soul. I did 
forbid her before, but now I have nothing to 
say." 

" Well, I would like you to give her leave 
to attend the meetings and classes and the 
Sabbath services." 

" All right," he muttered. " She can go. 
But I forbid you to come any more to the 
kraal." 



THE TYRANNY OF TAKI 107 

Writing Mr. Davidson on some matters 
'Smoyana added a postscript: 

" We are going to make a raid on Taki's 
house in a body on Sabbath without his 'per- 
mission. Pray for us ! " 

Taki is still a heathen. 



VII 

THE WITCH-DOCTOR'S FATE 

Passing, one day, a large group of half -naked 
men sitting imbibing beer she noticed, in 
the centre, a commanding figure with a head 
of tangled grey hair from which strings of 
blue beads hung pendant to the waist. 

It was her stoutest opponent, Loqina the 
witch-doctor. When he saw her he shouted 
threateningly, 

" Go away, you Government spy; we 
don't want you." 

Mrs. Forsyth's Scottish blood rose at this, 
and she went forward and fearlessly told him 
what she thought of him and his ways. 

Shortly afterwards a native marriage took 
place with its attendant abominations of 
drinking and dancing — and worse. It ended 
with a free fight between the girls of Xolobe 
and a neighbouring district. Loqina was 
present during the seven days of the feast 
and then went stumbling home. " Loqina 

108 



THE WITCH-DOCTOR'S FATE 109 

is taking the wrong road," cried some one 
who followed him up and found that the 
old man's excesses had smitten him blind. 

He was thereafter a prisoner in his dirty 
home and was looked after by Nondika, his 
queer old wife, to whom he rhapsodised 
about the wars he had been engaged in, the 
blood he had shed, and the wounds he had 
received. His lucrative practice fell off and 
he was reduced to want. 

A little kindness from the white woman 
worked wonders and he began to come to 
her meetings. The parable of the lost sheep 
attracted him strangely. " Tell me about 
the sheep that was lost," he would say again 
and again, like a child fascinated by some 
story, and he never tired of listening to it. 
When he left Mrs. Forsyth's presence he 
always bent down and kissed her hand. 

He grew poorer and more friendless and 
was forsaken by his relations. His strength 
failed as well as his sight and he wished Mrs. 
Forsyth to go and count his sheep which 
he had left in the care of a neighbour. The 
sheep had disappeared, and at the last he was 
only able to give Nondika a shilling. " Buy 
some clothes," he said, " and go to church." 
He did not make any profession but died 
praying. 



110 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

The old wife discarded her red clay and 
with a little help procured some clothes and 
became a faithful attender at the services. 
Whether the weather was cold or hot, wet 
or sunny, she was at the station by sunrise. 
She was finally baptized by Mr. Davidson, 
but her home life was not happy. Food and 
house-room were grudgingly bestowed, and 
she was often taken violently to task for 
not being able to complete the work allotted 
to her in the fields. She caught a chill and 
died one morning at daybreak, with love in her 
heart for " God and Jesus and little children." 

Another instance of the power of the new 
teaching at this time gave Mrs. Forsyth much 
satisfaction. Nomonti, the head wife of the 
former headman, had become more hardened 
after her husband's imprisonment and 
pursued her sinful way. Some of her near 
relatives, however, forsook their red clay 
and after probation were admitted to the 
membership of the church. This seemed to 
startle her out of her complacency. One 
day whilst Mrs. Forsyth was passing her 
hut she saw the woman beckoning to her. 

" Well, Nomonti," she said kindly, notic- 
ing that she hesitated to speak. As she still 
seemed at a loss how to begin Mrs. Forsyth 
went on: 



THE WITCH-DOCTOR'S FATE 111 

"And what do you think of your friends 
accepting Jesus as their Saviour ? " 

" Ma," she exclaimed, " I want to receive 
Him too ! " 

On the green grass by the roadside she 
knelt and surrendered herself, and a month 
later was baptized. 

Becoming weak and frail in body she was 
not able for rapid travelling and came down 
to the mission-house on Saturday and 
remained until Monday in order not to miss 
the services. She enjoyed the morning and 
evening worship and the talks with Mrs. 
Forsyth, and up to the end was happy and 
cheerful in her faith. 

When she died she pled pathetically in 
prayer that her Heavenly Father might be 
with her as she went through the dark valley 
of the shadow. So well beloved had she 
become that one hundred and fifty " red " 
men and women paid the last tribute of 
respect to her. 



VIII 

A NINE-DAYS' WONDER 

As the work developed, and possibilities of 
extension presented themselves, Mrs. Forsyth 
longed for an assistant who would relieve 
her of some of her routine duties. Plan as 
she would, however, she could not make her 
slender income stretch sufficiently to cover 
the cost. She talked the matter over with 
Mr. Davidson, always her wise counsellor, 
and as his mind had fixed upon Xolobe for 
her so it turned now to a society in Scot- 
land which, he was sanguine, would provide 
her the help she required. This was the 
Greenock Ladies' Association for Promoting 
Female Education in Kafraria, which had 
been instituted in 1841 for the purpose of 
assisting the work at Emgwali Training 
Institution. 

Acting on his advice she wrote to the 
Committee describing her service and needs, 
and received an eager and generous response, 

112 



A NINE-DAYS' WONDER 113 

the Society agreeing to send her out £20 a 
year to pay the salary of an assistant. 

Thus was initiated a connection which 
lasted throughout the whole of her sojourn 
in Kafraria and formed the principal link 
between her and the homeland. She corre- 
sponded with the Secretary, Miss Prentice, 
and after her death, with her successor 
Miss Macfarlane. Month by month the 
lonely missionary related the story of her 
work and back came the love and sym- 
pathy of an understanding Christian heart. 
These letters from Miss Macfarlane were 
a perennial source of cheer and encourage- 
ment. 

In time other members of the Committee 
got in touch with her and showed her much 
kindness. As her name and work began to 
be better known amongst the congregations 
of the church, money and boxes of goods 
for distribution to the natives were sent out 
to her by work parties, Sunday School 
children, and others. Two cases from the 
Greenock ladies contained cotton and woollen 
material, clothes, stationery, toys, and other 
articles to the value of £75. These gifts 
were very welcome; she was able to give 
the children what they required to attend 
school, to clothe the natives who renounced 



114 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

their blanket, and to assist the people 
generally in times of economic distress. 

For her first assistant 'Smoyana chose 
Ntintille, who happened to be a protegee of 
the Ladies' Association, having been trained 
at Emgwali. She proved helpful both in 
school and in visitation, but the climate 
proved too cold for her constitution and she 
resigned. 

She was succeeded by Bekiwe, her old 
scholar at Paterson, who, at the instance of 
Mrs. Macfarlane, of Glasgow, had obtained 
some training at Emgwali, and was as con- 
sistent in her life and as eager and devoted 
in her service for Christ as ever. She was a 
nine-days' wonder. The people were amazed 
to know that this trim, wholesome girl had 
been a "red clay" like themselves; but 
they were also ready to ridicule and intimi- 
date her. She, however, was a thorough- 
going Christian, fearlessly facing their scorn, 
and denouncing the evils of their heathen 
customs. 

Another subsequent assistant was Antyi 
Mbanga, who was descended from a royal 
clan, and was loved and respected by the 
natives, and exercised real power in the 
district. 

Mrs. Forsyth saw that women like these 








A TYPICAL FINGO 





A NINE-DAYS' WONDER 115 

were the hope of Africa. There might, no 
doubt, be failures, but the example and in- 
fluence of those who succeeded were beyond 
all calculation. This conviction led very- 
soon to an important development. 



IX 

THE GREENOCK GIFT 

So absorbed was Mrs. Forsyth in her work 
that she had forgotten to care for her own 
comfort. She was still living in a damp and 
dark Kafir hut, out of which she was occasion- 
ally washed by the rains. But she was as 
happy as a queen, and never thought of com- 
plaining to any one. The fact, however, 
came to the knowledge of the Greenock 
ladies, who could not bear to think of her 
passing her days and nights in so wretched 
a dwelling. They made judicious inquiries 
regarding material and costs, and then 
through the generosity of a few friends the 
Committee was able to remit to her the sum 
of £48 for the purpose of building a two- 
roomed cottage, one room to be entirely her 
own, the other to be used as a schoolhouse 
in wet or cold weather. 

The news of the gift fell like a benediction 
on the heart of the solitary woman. She 

116 



THE GREENOCK GIFT 117 

was deeply touched by the thoughtfulness 
and sympathy it evinced and proceeded joy- 
fully to raise her home. Selecting native 
workmen who had renounced their heathen- 
ism she set them to work. Interest and love 
stimulated their service and by November 
1889 the building was ready. She called it 
" The Greenock Schoolhouse " in recognition 
of the source of the gift. Thinking it well 
to make a little function of the opening she 
invited the magistrate of the district and 
her umfundisi, Mr. Davidson, to be present. 
Many Christians from Paterson and else- 
where also travelled to the ceremony, and 
an ox was killed and roasted for their benefit. 

The magistrate gave a speech in which 
he impressed upon the people the value of 
education and the great things which Mrs. 
Forsyth was doing for them and their chil- 
dren. He then distributed the prizes to the 
scholars. " To see," wrote Mr. Davidson, " red 
heathen in one of the darkest spots of Africa 
coming up in half-dozens and reading the 
Bible both in English and their own language 
correctly, and repeating from memory whole 
chapters of the New Testament and Psalms 
without a mistake, was really marvellous." 

Now that there was a regular mission- 
house, though a humble one, and a proper 



118 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

home atmosphere, Mrs. Forsyth decided to try 
the experiment of taking in a scholar to live 
with her. She felt that the chief influence 
against the redemption of the children was 
the evil surroundings of their huts, and it 
might be possible to train up one or two who 
would grow up into womanhood uncontami- 
nated by heathen scenes and customs and 
become teachers and inspirers of their race. 

The Greenock Society, happy to share 
the privilege of this development, hastened 
to offer £10 per annum to cover the cost. 

The girl chosen was " Bella Moir," a 
lovable, affectionate girl, and a good scholar. 
She proved worthy of the care which 
'Smoyana bestowed upon her, bringing many 
recruits to the school, and exercising a whole- 
some influence upon all. 

:i When did you begin to love your Saviour, 
Bella ? " inquired Mrs. Forsyth one day. 

" Only after I came here," she said. 

Bella's case was so encouraging that 
three other children were taken in. Theodore, 
seven years old, was the son of Matole, the 
new headman, who voluntarily gave him up 
to the care of 'Smoyana. She looked for- 
ward to the boy becoming a Christian chief 
and exercising a wide influence for good. 
To her sorrow he was suddenly withdrawn. 



THE GREENOCK GIFT 119 

When she visited his hut she was greatly 
affected by his shame as he stood before her 
decked in his blanket and beads. He kept 
thereafter out of her sight but once she saw 
him outside the kraal. 

" Theodore, do you still pray ? " she asked. 

He hung his head. " No, 'Smoyana. My 
mother forbids me." 

Celani was a girl of heathen parents whom 
Mrs. Forsyth picked up at a kraal down the 
valley. Whilst speaking to the father the 
child began to cry, and on the father asking 
what was the matter she sobbed, " I want 
to go with the missionary: I want to go 
to heaven: I don't want to go to hell." To 
Mrs. Forsyth's surprise the father gave the 
girl up to her and she became a boarder. 
Gentle and likeable, she was apt at learning 
Scripture and was first in examination at 
repeating long passages from memory. 

One day, noticing a troubled look in her 
face, Mrs. Forsyth asked her what was wrong 
and learnt that the girl dreaded being taken 
away. The blow fell soon after. For some 
unknown reason she was removed, protest- 
ing and in tears, and when Mrs. Forsyth went 
to her hut she was cut to the heart by the 
expression of sorrow and despair on her 
face. A year later an epidemic of smallpox 



120 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

swept over the district, and Celani, much dis- 
figured by the disease and suffering from a 
racking cough, appeared again and was 
taken into the shelter of the schoolhouse. 
But after passing the Third Standard and 
being baptized she left and put on red clay. 

The other child, Ida, was only four years 
when she became a member of the household. 
Her mother was a superior woman, one of 
the finest of the converts, but was married 
to a " red " who neither sympathised with 
her nor countenanced her ways. Ida was 
a winsome little thing who was in danger 
of being spoiled, but under the house- 
mother's careful guidance she grew up into 
a sweet and clever girl. Mrs. Forsyth wrote 
of her: "Ida has learned quickly and sur- 
passes all the children of her age at the 
school. She can read Kafir, spell a little, 
do simple addition, repeat the multiplica- 
tion table, and is second best at Bible know- 
ledge." When she was older a woman who 
promised to take her down to the Communion 
at Paterson drew back at the last moment. 
Praying before going to bed Ida said, " We 
have been disappointed to-day, but we 
remember what Jesus said upon the Cross, 
4 Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do.' " 



X 

OFFICIAL TRIBUTES 

It is the good custom of the Church in 
Scotland to send out delegates at intervals 
to its various mission-fields, to survey the 
work being done at the stations, cheer and 
help the workers, and bring back an account 
of what they have seen in order to stimulate 
interest at home. In 1892 Mrs. Forsyth 
heard that two delegates from the United 
Presbyterian Board were on their way to 
Kafraria, the Rev. James Buchanan, the 
Foreign Mission Secretary, and his son, Mr. 
J. C. Buchanan, M.A., but scarcely antici- 
pated that they would take the trouble of 
penetrating to Xolobe. 

Mr. Davidson, however, was resolved that 
she should be seen in her mountain fastness, 
and there came a day of pleasurable excite- 
ment when the cavalcade rode up. Mr. 
Buchanan was a man of critical discernment 
and not readily moved, but he was profoundly 

121 



122 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

impressed by Mrs. Forsyth and her work 
and both in his official report to the Board 
and in the magazines of the Church he 
dwelt upon the remarkable service she was 
rendering in her " green spot in the desert." 
In the narrative of his travels over 1910 miles 
of country he writes: 

" As we approached Xolobe we discovered 
two buildings, one apparently a wattle-and- 
daub structure with thatched roof; the 
other, a neat-looking cottage building 
covered with corrugated iron. . . . Mrs. 
Forsyth is an unsalaried agent of the mission 
who has been doing work in this valley for 
the past seven years. The tribe among 
whom she lives and labours are perhaps the 
rudest and roughest of the native people — 
a stranger tribe who came from a distance 
and settled in this valley some years ago. 
Mrs. Forsyth was at first looked upon by 
them with considerable suspicion, and her 
friends were of opinion that she was exposed 
to many risks in such a community. But 
by her patient labour, by her kindly interest 
in the people, both old and young, and by 
her calm, unfaltering, unflinching courage, 
she has won her way to their hearts, and 
exercises a marvellous influence over them. 
They look upon her as in a very special 



OFFICIAL TRIBUTES 128 

sense their own, and woe betide any one who 
would attempt to insult or injure her. 

" She visits the people in their huts, and 
gathers them together for worship in the 
little church. She has some sixty children 
at her school, whom she teaches to read and 
to commit to memory portions of Scripture 
and hymns. She has had about one hundred 
and seventy young people under her hands, 
and such a blessing has attended her efforts 
on their behalf that no fewer than forty of 
these have been led to profess their faith in 
Christ, most of whom, after being thoroughly 
tested by Mr. Davidson's session, have been 
admitted to the fellowship of the church. 

" As we observed Mrs. Forsyth busy at 
her work; as we thought of the difficulties 
she had overcome, and the position she had 
made for herself amongst that barbarous 
tribe; as we thought of her there single- 
handed and alone doing the Master's work, 
supporting herself out of her own resources; 
as we marked the quiet, genuine happiness 
that she has in her work, and her humble 
trustful dependence upon Him whom she 
loves and serves, we could not refrain from 
saying that we had witnessed in that valley 
perhaps the most remarkable sight that had 
met our eyes throughout all our journeyings. 



124 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

" There are here many of the elements 
of the truest heroism. The story of Mrs. 
Forsyth's work in Xolobe during these past 
few years is little known because of her 
modest and unassuming nature, because she 
looks upon the work as not done by her, but 
by Him on whom by a simple but sublime 
faith she depends; but it is not less a story 
which may well touch our hearts, and that 
may serve as an inspiration and a guide to 
many who have time and means and culture 
at their disposal, but who cannot find a 
sphere in which to serve their Lord, and to 
benefit and bless their fellows." 

To this tribute may be added one from 
Mr. Newton O. Thompson, who was Resident 
Magistrate of the district until 1895: 

" Mrs. Forsyth had no fears. She kept 
before her the great work which she had come 
to carry out, and nothing could turn her 
aside. Hopeful and courageous, she plodded 
on in the face of much opposition, and 
although she fully realised the great diffi- 
culties in her way, never doubted, and was 
always cheerful. I was much impressed 
with the quiet persistent manner in which 
she overcame all difficulties and carried on 
the work without any trouble with the people. 



OFFICIAL TRIBUTES 125 

I have no doubt she met with many troubles, 
but, if so, these were always settled quietly, 
or with the help and support of the mis- 
sionary from Mbulu, and I cannot recall any 
instance in which any complaint was brought 
to the office. Those who at first were doubt- 
ful as to the wisdom of the step taken by 
Mrs. Forsyth came round in the end. Her 
self-sacrifice and devotion to the work so 
impressed people (white and black) that all 
were ready to acknowledge her strength of 
character and sincerity." 



XI 

AN EXPERIMENT WHICH FAILED 

There were few busier women in Africa at 
this time than Mrs. Forsyth. Her days were 
occupied early and late with a multitude of 
duties in the interests of the people and her 
household. Here is a note she gave the 
Greenock ladies of her activities for one 
week: 

" Prayer-meetings on Monday, Tuesday, 
and Thursday mornings at daybreak; meet- 
ings on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; 
sewing twice a week before school and 
visiting afterwards; plastering outside and 
inside; whitewashing; scrubbing and oiling 
the stained floors; baking for Christmas; 
killing sheep; roasting and grinding coffee; 
attending to numerous callers." 

Sometimes she would leave her routine 
work and spend a week visiting the more 
remote kraals. In her eagerness to help and 
save the people she never thought of herself; 

126 



EXPERIMENT WHICH FAILED 127 

she slept where she could, and ate what 
native food she could procure, and trudged 
over the rocky hills indifferent to fatigue and 
exhaustion. 

There came times when, overwhelmed by 
work and difficulties, she would stand in 
rueful perplexity and wonder at herself. 
" I don't suppose any one else would remain 
here for any length of time," she confessed. 
There was always some trouble or distress 
disturbing the order of life. Now it would 
be a severe drought, now a plague of locusts, 
now an epidemic of rinderpest amongst the 
cattle, now a visitation of smallpox or other 
disease. At these periods every one turned 
to her for her advice and help and comfort. 
During one winter, with the assistance of 
friends in Scotland, she fed forty children 
daily. 

She found at last that she could not com- 
pass all her tasks with any degree of satisfac- 
tion. " If only I had a white helper," she 
sighed. The Greenock ladies were always 
so interested in her work that she made up 
her mind to lay the situation before them. 
" Perhaps," she thought, " there may be 
found at home some lady of consecrated 
life who may be willing to come out and 
devote herself and her means to such a 



128 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

service." She ventured to broach the sub- 
ject, and asked the ladies to try and find 
such an individual. " Give us/' she said, 
" some one filled with the Divine compassion 
for souls that animated our Saviour." 

The suggestion fell on sympathetic hearts; 
it awakened, indeed, something like en- 
thusiasm. There was only one doubt ex- 
pressed. Mrs. Forsyth, it was said, was an 
exception to all rule. " She is one in a 
thousand and does work that no one else 
would attempt. But might there not be a 
risk in asking another to share her trials and 
privations ? " The risk was, nevertheless, 
accepted; the ladies determined to go for- 
ward in faith. 

A Committee was appointed to make 
known the need, but the effect of the appeal 
was disappointing. Not one could be found 
to sacrifice her home life and interests for 
service amongst the kraals of Kafirland. 
The Committee met again and again without 
result. It was not to be baffled. If no one 
would go as a voluntary worker, perhaps a 
salary would be an inducement. One friend 
after another said she would feel it an honour 
to be allowed to contribute to such a cause, 
and guaranteed amounts for five years. The 
total sum raised was beyond all expectation. 



EXPERIMENT WHICH FAILED 129 

The choice of the Committee fell upon 
Miss Isabella Lamb, who was dedicated to 
the work at a meeting in Greenock at which 
two South African missionaries, Dr. and 
Mrs. Soga, were present. The former — a 
son of the famous Tiyo Soga — advised her 
to acquire some knowledge of dispensing, 
and she went for a time to an institution 
in Edinburgh, where she was taught how to 
treat simple ailments. In June 1893 she 
sailed with the Sogas for South Africa. 

From East London she covered the same 
ground as Mrs. Forsyth had done. She was 
so fatigued by the rough experience that Mrs. 
Davidson kept her at Paterson for a time to 
recruit. On arriving at her destination she 
wrote: "I can't describe the wagon journey, 
but I don't think I will leave Xolobe until 
there is a railway." 

Mr. Davidson formally introduced her to 
the people. To the headman he said : " I 
hope you will receive her kindly and take 
care of her, along with Mrs. Forsyth." 

" Umfundisi," the headman replied, " we 
know 'Smoyana. She is an old woman and 
a woman of sense, but she goes to the huts 
and over the rocks in the night - time. If 
she does that what will Miss Lamb not do ? 
— for she is young and perhaps flighty. We 



130 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

will take care of them but will not be respon- 
sible for them after the sun is down and our 
people are drinking beer. If they go to a 
hut and the way is long they must stay till 
sunrise, or get some one to see them safely 
home. We receive Miss Lamb." 

Then up spoke the headman from Pater- 
son, a Christian, with a deeper knowledge 
of the forces behind Mrs. Forsyth: 

" 'Smoyana is safe. I have seen her come 
to a flooded river which she was afraid to 
cross. What does she do ? For a minute 
she puts her hands like this [covering his 
eyes as if in prayer], then goes bravely over." 

Miss Lamb began with all the buoyancy 
and energy of a newcomer, visited the huts, 
and with her medicine-chest beside her held 
continuous levees. Mrs. Forsyth, she de- 
clared, was " nice and kind and a thoroughly 
good Christian." The missionary watched 
her with shrewd eyes, and wrote that the 
Committee must not expect too much of her 
for a year at least, and that it would depend 
on the care she took of herself during that 
time what her future in Africa would be. 
Mrs. Davidson felt very sorry for her. 
" The work is trying at the best," she said, 
" and the isolation will be hard on a young 
person." 



EXPERIMENT WHICH FAILED 131 

As the days passed the rose-colours faded 
out of the life, and difficulties seemed to 
increase, though they were the ordinary 
difficulties of a mission-station, which always 
requires courage and patience and faith. The 
people were hard-hearted. An epidemic of 
smallpox and measles broke out, and the 
school had to be closed and visitation given 
up. The church was burned down. The 
heat was severe and told on her health. 
Despite an occasional visit to Paterson 
where she was mothered by Mrs. Davidson, 
she began to suffer from depression of spirits, 
sleeplessness, and lack of appetite. She 
brooded over the fact that she had under- 
taken duties for which she had not the 
physical strength. Finally the District Sur- 
geon reported that she was suffering from 
anaemia and recommended that she should 
be removed to some place where the climate 
was more bracing, the surroundings more 
congenial, and the duties lighter. 

The Ladies' Committee at home met im- 
mediately this report was received and sent 
out a kind message to the effect that she 
might feel happier if she knew she was not 
bound to stay but was free to do as she 
wished, and that if she thought it best to 
resign they would pay her passage back. 



132 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

She resigned but remained in South Africa, 
finding more suitable employment as a nurse 
in a hospital at Queenstown. 

Thus ended Mrs. Forsyth's dream of a 
helper and companion from the homeland. 
She never sought another, but continued in 
her isolation and loneliness, with only an 
occasional visit from a missionary to keep 
her in touch with white civilisation. She 
had a profound belief that she would obtain 
all the strength and support she needed. 

The episode is like a flash of light in the 
darkness, revealing the exceptional character 
of the conditions amidst which she lived, and 
proving that not all would-be missionaries 
are fitted for the rough and lonely work of 
pioneering in Africa. " Few women," writes 
the Rev. John Lundie of Malan Mission, 
" have the nerve for such work. Fewer 
still can stand the isolation and the dis- 
appointments with native character without 
breaking down in health and spirits. Mrs. 
Forsyth always seemed to me fitted by 
nature, temperament, and physique, as well 
as spiritually, for the niche she filled." 



XII 

A FIRE AND A REVIVAL 

The old wattle-and-daub building in which 
services were held had begun to leak and 
Mrs. Forsyth set about re-thatching it. It 
was the hot season. Over a hundred women 
carried the grass, and a squad of men cut 
and prepared the saplings for the verandah 
poles. All was finished, and the thatcher 
was burning the discarded material when 
the wind arose and carried a spark to the 
new roof. It blazed up like tinder and in 
a trice the entire building was consumed. 

Looking at the little heap of ashes Mrs. 
Forsyth said to those around : " There is 
only one thing to do; we must build another." 
That is the characteristic spirit of African 
missionaries when confronted by disaster; 
they never acknowledge defeat or give way 
to despair. They simply begin again. Life 
in the wilds, indeed, is but a series of 
beginnings. 

133 



134 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

The services, meanwhile, were held in the 
schoolroom which was crowded to excess by 
both Christians and " reds " so that the 
children had to find a place under the table. 
There was no one more relieved than the 
missionary when the new building was com- 
pleted. The opening was a red-letter event 
in the history of Xolobe. Along with the 
magistrate and Mr. Davidson there was 
present Mr. Candlish Koti, who had been 
appointed assistant at Paterson. A native 
evangelist of promise, he had been sent to 
Scotland as a deputy to the Jubilee Synod 
of the United Presbyterian Church and had 
just returned. " I feel," he said, " as if* I 
had had a tremendous dream. When I tell 
people about things I have seen they seem 
to be listening to one who is relating a dream, 
and are quite unable to realise what you 
tell them." 

The building cost £50, the greater part 
of which the people themselves contributed. 
At the opening service they gave £9, mostly 
in small sums, such as tickies (threepenny 
pieces) and pennies, and in stock, such as 
sheep and goats and fowls. One heathen 
man laid down 10s. with the remark, " My 
cattle are dead, and there is no harvest, I 
can't afford any more." After the service 



A FIRE AND A REVIVAL 135 

the company adjourned to the open where 
they feasted and then quietly dispersed at 
sunset to their homes. 

The event seemed to shake the people 
out of their routine and stir their deeper 
feelings, for it was followed by a movement 
amongst women and children which was 
akin to revival. The church was packed 
on every occasion. One woman walked with 
her baby strapped to her back a difficult 
mountain journey of three hours to be 
present at the services. " It is true," 
remarked 'Smoyana, " that love lends wings 
to the feet." 

Special meetings were also held in the 
surrounding huts which sometimes went on 
all night. "We used to come here as red 
heathen to dance," said one woman to Mrs. 
Forsyth, " now we come to pray." A 
notable part was taken by the women them- 
selves who were singularly eloquent and 
fervent in their prayers. One, who was old 
and poor, poured forth her soul thus: 

" Lord, I have no home. Thou art my 
home. I have no goods. Thou art my 
portion. I have no food. Thou art the 
bread which came down from heaven, of 
which if we eat we shall never hunger or 
thirst," 



136 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

Mrs. Forsyth was happy. " My cup 
runneth over," she exclaimed again and 
again, and she attributed all to prayer put 
up on her behalf in Scotland. Her vision 
expanded. She not only wanted " Xolobe 
for Christ." Her motto now was " Africa 
for Christ." She urged her friends to wider 
prayer. 



XIII 

THE MIRACLE OF TEN YEARS 

What impact had this one lonely worker 
made on the massed heathenism of Xolobe 
during her first ten years of service ? 

In her humility she was only conscious 
of how little had been achieved, and yet she 
had accomplished a result which onlookers 
considered little short of marvellous. Her 
sole instruments had been a simple gospel 
ministry, absolute faith, and indomitable 
tenacity of purpose. With these she had 
created, out of the crudest heathenism, a 
civilised and Christian community. There 
had been 117 baptisms and admissions to 
.the worship of the church, and many candi- 
dates were ready and fit for joining. She 
had established a series of religious organisa- 
tions exercising an ever-increasing influence. 
The day school she had started was now an 
important institution, the work of which was 
rapidly expanding beyond the limit of her 

137 



138 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

powers. The people who had opposed her 
and resisted her ministrations were at last 
friendly; she was looked upon as a mother 
to them all, their trusted adviser, helper, and 
guide. She could go alone to any kraal, 
night or day, even when a beer drink was 
in progress, and feel that she was respected 
and safe. 

It was, indeed, a miracle of patient toil 
and persistence. For one has to bear in 
mind the untold expenditure of thought, 
prayer, and energy which each changed life 
represented. Sometimes she was years 
shepherding some wild heart. There was 
one heathen kraal which she had visited con- 
tinuously since she arrived without observing 
the least sign of change, yet she never lost 
confidence. In the tenth year one of the 
women inmates came forward and sur- 
rendered herself, and the missionary wel- 
comed her with humble gratitude. It was 
such incidents that kept her life flushed 
with hope and gave her the joy which made 
her work endurable and glad. 

Perhaps nothing thrilled her so much as 
when she heard that the dying had passed 
away in Christian faith and assurance. A 
young married woman, one of her original 
scholars, lay on her death-bed. " My body 



THE MIRACLE OF TEN YEARS 139 

is weak," she murmured, " but my soul is 
in perfect peace." Her first convert, a 
young man, while dying, kept his New Testa- 
ment lovingly clasped in his hand. After- 
wards it was removed and given to Mrs. 
Forsyth, who sent it to the ladies in Greenock 
as a pathetic, yet significant, symbol of the 
dawning of the new era in Xolobe. 

Not that all the dark features of heathen- 
ism had been eradicated, or that all hostility 
to her teaching had ceased. There were 
times when even her extraordinary courage 
and hopefulness faltered and her spirits 
drooped. At some of the meetings only a 
few would appear. The others would be 
away at a beer-drinking. Superstition was 
still rife. Scholars would be withdrawn from 
the school because 'Smoyana had sent the 
rinderpest amongst them to destroy their 
cattle ! 

There were men and women, too, with 
whom she could do nothing, and her grief 
would have been unmitigable had she not 
remembered that even her Master, with all 
His power, could work no change with some 
people because of their unbelief. Many 
were sympathetic towards her but shy of 
her message. It was almost ludicrous to 
watch their attitude. They shunned the 



140 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

church when services were going on and yet 
were eager enough to help her in any work 
that had to be done to the building. Others 
desired to come and hear her, drawn by a 
powerful curiosity as to that Unknown God 
of hers, and they would squat outside, long- 
ing, yet afraid, to enter, lest they might be 
converted. 

There were troubles also with her own 
members and bravely did she meet them. 
" A few Sabbaths ago," she writes, " it was 
my painful duty to warn the Christian people 
amongst us not to give their sons to the 
heathen custom of circumcision, and its 
attendant evils. This custom permeates all 
classes, Christian and heathen, and yearly 
it is the beginning of a downward course 
to many, who are thus lost to God and to 
purity of life. I could see that my audience 
were not in sympathy with me. The native 
evangelist held down his head, and wiped 
the perspiration from his forehead. Perhaps 
the sins of his youth were rising before him. 
2 Corinthians vi. 17, 18 were my last words 
to them, ' Wherefore, come out from among 
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, 
and touch not the unclean thing; and I will 
receive you, and will be a Father unto you, 
and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith 



THE MIRACLE OF TEN YEARS 141 

the Lord Almighty.' The native evangelist 
proceeded with his work afterwards, making 
no allusion to what had gone before." 

But the rank swamp of heathenism had 
been cleared of its worst elements, and 
although at times whiffs of moral miasma 
drifted chokingly over the district the atmos- 
phere was infinitely purer than it had been 
when she arrived that summer evening ten 
years before. 



XIV 

ABDICATION 

Another stage in the quiet evolution of the 
work was reached when the day school 
passed out of Mrs. Forsyth's hands. Her 
chief thought was centred there, for she 
realised that if she secured the youth of the 
district she would be laying a secure founda- 
tion for a Christian future, and she was con- 
tinually pondering how to increase its useful- 
ness and influence. 

When a new magistrate was appointed 
he was told of her work. " I wish I could 
do something to help her," he exclaimed. 
The remark reached her ears and she 
promptly sent him a message to the effect that 
the best thing he could do for her was to stir 
up the " red " people to send their children 
to school. He thought that would rather 
increase her toil than lessen it, but he, never- 
theless, acceded to her suggestion and held 
conferences with the headman with excellent 

143 



ABDICATION 143 

results for the school. It grew steadily in 
number until sixty-four boys and girls 
were attending regularly. 

The efficiency of the teaching was always 
tested at Christmas, when the parents and 
friends of the pupils gathered to witness a 
display of their powers. Examinations were 
conducted in Bible knowledge, and it 
astonished Mr. Davidson, who usually pre- 
sided, to learn how thoroughly they had 
been grounded, and how extensive and in- 
telligent was their acquaintance with the 
Book. Over 90 per cent of the answers 
were, as a rule, correct. All the children 
repeated the Ten Commandments and the 
Beatitudes, and some could recite whole 
chapters without a mistake. Hymns were 
sung without the book and problems in 
arithmetic solved. There was always one 
who was proud of being able to say off the 
multiplication table backwards. Specimens 
of sewing work were also exhibited. The 
proceedings ended with the distribution of 
dolls and toys from a Christmas tree, and the 
presentation of Bibles to those who had been 
baptized. 

It was little wonder that there began to 
be talk of having the school properly in- 
spected and of securing Government aid. 



1U CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

Mrs. Forsyth foresaw what that meant — 
the appointment of a certificated teacher; 
but with her usual common sense and adapta- 
bility she was ready to accept the change 
for the good of Xolobe. 

" It will be a sore wrench to me when it 
comes," she wrote. " But I must try to 
get over the feeling by throwing myself heart 
and soul into the other work." This was 
calling her with ever more insistent summons. 
She brooded over the fact that fifty men and 
women had died in their heathenism dur- 
ing her sojourn amongst them. ' Visitation 
and evangelisation are urgent and I must 
do more." It was her constant cry. 

Shortly afterwards the school was taken 
over by the Government; and she abdicated 
in favour of Simon INTdima, a trained teacher, 
the son of a Paterson headman, who was 
given Antyi as an assistant. Mrs. Forsyth 
feared that a Government teacher might not 
accord due attention to Bible instruction and 
said so to Simon. He looked at her sorrow- 
fully. " 'Smoyana," he replied, " I know that 
no good can be done without that Book." 

She was present when he gave his first 
Bible lesson on the birth of Jesus, and was 
struck by its simplicity and impressiveness. 
With relief she wrote to her friends, " I 




si 



THE GREENOCK SCHOOLHOUSE 







4M : -:«T'*SM 



«ti 



S'-| C :J:# : - 




Hi XDIXG OYER THE SCHOOL TO THE GOVERNMENT TEACHER 



ABDICATION 145 

leave the school in his hands without fear." 
She and Mr. Davidson were appointed joint- 
managers. 

The school continued to flourish and the 
curriculum was widened, cookery, sewing, 
and knitting being amongst the subjects 
added, whilst a qualified assistant replaced 
Antyi, who devoted herself to evangelistic 
work. It was always a grief to the teacher 
that the older pupils left so soon, their places 
being taken by the little ones, but Mrs. 
Forsyth wisely said, "I am quite pleased 
to see the dear wee things coming from 
heathen kraals to be taught. God's stand- 
ards are different from man's." 

The teacher at this time lost his own 
little child, and, sorrowing over the event 
as if the infant had been her own, Mrs. 
Forsyth went over with material for the 
burial. Two women sewed a white gown 
and cap, and the child was placed in a rough 
coffin covered with black muslin. Amidst 
the weeping of those present, Christian and 
heathen, one of the elders spoke a few words 
from the passage, " Now is Christ risen from 
the dead"; and then the old grandfather 
took the coffin in his arms and proceeded 
to the grave, where he prayed with such 
emotion that he completely broke down. 



XV 

THE DOCTORS WARNING 

Relieved from the duties of the school Mrs. 
Forsyth gave herself more completely to the 
general work of the station, organising it on 
more comprehensive lines, and adding new 
agencies as she saw need. 

All this activity she carried on unaided 
save by her native assistant and one or two 
voluntary workers. "It is amazing the 
work she accomplishes, " Mr. Davidson re- 
ported in 1902. She held the usual Sunday 
services, a candidates' class, a junior candi- 
dates' class, which met on Monday morning 
and was attended by over sixty boys and 
girls — a Sunday School with a senior class 
for women who were learning to read the 
Bible, and prayer-meetings both in the 
church and the huts. Not content with 
these stated events she gathered all the 
school girls and lads of the church on Satur- 
days and dealt with each apart. 

146 



THE DOCTOR'S WARNING 147 

She also began a branch of the Upward 
and Onward Society which met on Sunday 
and was well attended. The membership 
of the Society throughout the district of 
Mbulu and out-stations was over five hun- 
dred. In this connection she came into 
touch with the Countess of Aberdeen. To 
commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary 
of the Society the latter sent out a gift of 
pale-blue satin bookmarks, and Mrs. Forsyth 
was amused to find at a local ceremony that 
the women had adorned their bodies with 
them. The Society later became incorpo- 
rated with the Women's Christian Association 
of the Presbyterian Church of South Africa. 

Meetings to pray for rain were a special 
feature of the work. In this northern storm- 
lashed land of ours such gatherings seem 
strange, but droughts in South Africa are of 
frequent occurrence. When the sun shone 
pitilessly for weeks on a slowly shrivelling 
land, the people turned to their " rain- 
makers " to break the spell. Mrs. Forsyth 
endeavoured to raise their materialistic con- 
ception to a higher and more spiritual plane. 
To her meetings the heathen came in large 
numbers, the church never being able to 
hold them all. Her attitude was a humble 
waiting upon God, maker of heaven and 



148 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

earth, and she was justified in a wonderful 
way. Here is a single instance told in her 
own words : " In consequence of the lack 
of the summer rain the corn and maize were 
stunted and drooping. The heathen head- 
man sent a request for special prayer to be 
made. On the very day the prayer was 
offered the rain began to fall. As they 
continued to pray it fell in torrents and their 
crops were saved." Over and over again 
in her reports comes the laconic sentence, 
"We prayed for rain; our prayers were 
answered." The people declared that it 
was she who had brought the rain, but " of 
course," she said " it was God." 

She was giving much thought and time 
to the training of her boarders, w r hom she 
wished to be an object-lesson to the people. 
Usually she had from four to seven under her 
care, for each of whom the Greenock ladies 
contributed £5 per annum. She gave them 
good plain food and clothing, kept them 
busy during working hours, but allowed them 
plenty of leisure for recreation and play, and 
if they needed correction she did not spare 
them. As a result they were seldom ill, and 
were a contented, merry little company. 

Ida was still one of the number and was as 



THE DOCTORS WARNING 149 

bright and diligent as ever. Seemingly with- 
out effort she always came to the front, and 
was first in general intelligence. She was 
eager to continue her education and become 
an evangelist to her own people. Young as 
she was she was already beginning to speak 
to them of her knowledge of the peace and 
joy that attended the Christian life. So 
bright and promising was her character that 
when she could advance no higher in the 
school the Greenock Committee decided to 
send her to Emgwali Institution for the 
training she desired. There she also proved 
an apt and painstaking pupil, adding to her 
acquirements a thorough knowledge of sewing 
and baking. " I am glad you taught me to 
be a Christian child," she wrote to Mrs. 
Forsyth. " I want you to forgive me for all 
the unkind things I did to make you sorry. 
I am asking God to forgive me and trying 
hard to do my duty." 

Another boarder was Eliza, who was 
clever both at housework and lessons. She 
was the niece of the headman, and ultimately 
left to become cook to a white family. All 
the others did well, and one stood highest 
in the Presbyterian examination. 

Such incessant toil at her age — she was 
now fifty-eight — told upon Mrs. Forsyth's 



150 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

health, and there was a lowering of vitality 
which made her a ready victim to influenza. 
The attack was a severe one, and she was in 
bed for many weeks. When at Paterson 
attending the marriage of Mr. Davidson's 
daughter she saw Dr. Arnot — who had 
married the other daughter — and he examined 
her thoroughly and gave his verdict. 

" There is no organic disease," he said; 
" but the muscles of your heart are strained. 
You must not take any more long walks to 
heathen kraals. If you insist on doing that 
you will simply drop down some day — sooner 
than later." 

Her comment on this to a friend in 
Scotland was: "I am beginning to feel that 
I am in the sere and yellow leaf. We are 
both nearing the borderland, and the only 
thing that grieves me is the number of 
opportunities for serving our dear Lord and 
Saviour I have missed. What an unprofit- 
able servant I have been ! I would like you 
to know that when my time comes I would 
not like a single word to be written about 
me but this: 

Not in mine innocence I trust, 
I bow before Thee in the dust, 
And through my Saviour's blood alone 
I look for mercy at Thy throne. 



XVI 

VISITORS FROM SCOTLAND 

The union of the United Presbyterian 
Church, with which she was connected, and 
the Free Church left her position unaffected. 
She had been appointed an honorary worker 
by the Foreign Mission Board of the Church, 
and did not come, like other ladies on the 
foreign staff, under the jurisdiction of the 
new Women's Foreign Mission Committee of 
the united Church. But, like many another 
missionary, she was less of a personality than 
ever. She was now one of the most obscure 
units in the vast missionary force of the 
united body, occupying a remote and solitary 
outpost, and she pursued her tranquil way 
unknown to all save an interested and loyal 
few. Only an infrequent notice about her 
work appeared in the Missionary Record of 
the Church. "It is seldom," wrote Dr. 
Robson, the Editor, on one occasion, "that 
we can say anything about her quiet but 

151 



152 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

splendid ministry of service." When Dr. 
Robson died, she, like all the missionaries, 
missed his friendly interest. " He was like 
a father to us all," she said, " so great 
intellectually and spiritually and withal as 
humble as a child." 

She was greatly cheered and strengthened 
by a passing glimpse of two visitors from the 
homeland, distinguished members of her 
former church, and prominent workers in 
the united body, Mr. and Mrs. Duncan 
M'Laren of Edinburgh, well known for their 
deep and generous interest in missions and 
missionaries. As Mrs. M'Laren edited the 
Women's Missionary Magazine of the Church 
she was specially sympathetic to the women's 
side of the work, and was anxious, while in 
South Africa, to see Xolobe and Mrs. For- 
syth. Both visitors came away impressed by 
the saintliness of her character, her absolute 
trust upon God, and her devotion to the 
work. Here is Mrs. M'Laren's own account 
of her experience: 

" Mrs. Forsyth had come over the moun- 
tains from Xolobe to meet us at Paterson. 
We thought it best after a short rest to 
accompany her on her return home. The 
first hill we had to surmount was like a 
stony staircase. The road leading over it 



VISITORS FROM SCOTLAND 153 

was so steep, so bad, so impossible for horses, 
that Mr. Davidson kindly gave us four oxen 
to draw our cart and us up. After a time 
our horses were inspanned, and by walking 
up the hills we managed to drive the greater 
part of the way. Eventually we left our 
cart at a kraal, and walked, amid grand and 
wild surroundings, to the little mission-house, 
perched on a ridge, with a rocky drift in 
front and a deep dark canon behind. 

" For long Mrs. Forsyth lived in a Kafir 
hut, but owing to the strong wishes of her 
friends she consented to the little mission- 
house being built. It had only one good 
room, the other two, which opened off this 
middle one at each end, being very small. 
True to her constant practice that God and 
His work must come first, Mrs. Forsyth had 
given up her one bright room entirely as a 
class-room, the mud-and-wattle schoolroom 
close by being quite inadequate to contain 
the children who come to be taught. The 
two little rooms she had for herself were bare 
and destitute even of very ordinary comforts, 
but her six little native maidens, who lived 
with her, and whom she was training for 
God, kept them scrupulously clean and tidy. 
There was not even a garden round the 
mission-house, because, not being properly 



154 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

enclosed, the pigs ate up everything she tried 
to grow. 

" The church, a simple structure, was 
close by. It, too, was lacking in sufficient 
accommodation for the people who attended. 

" One of the Christians we saw interested 
us very much, a bright girl of thirteen. This 
child, after she had confessed in the heathen 
kraal that she loved Jesus and meant to 
serve Him, was chased out of the kraal and 
over the ridges by her father, whip in hand. 
She took refuge in the mission-house, and 
after a time the wrath of the father so abated 
that she was allowed to go home. 

" I shall always be glad that I heard Mrs. 
Forsyth pour out her heart in prayer to 
God in the Kafir tongue. I could not under- 
stand or follow the petitions, but I shall 
never forget the nearness of the Divine 
presence in that little room, or the shining 
face of His devoted messenger as we rose 
from our knees. 

" In the morning the Christians had met 
to pray for rain, and shortly after a thunder- 
storm broke. Rain was still falling heavily 
as we started again to traverse the ten miles 
of wilderness lying between Xolobe and 
Mbulu. Dark clouds made the deep chasms 
look deeper still, and added a grandeur to 



VISITORS FROM SCOTLAND 155 

the wild rocky heights, but away in the west 
was a gleam of wonderful light. It seemed 
as we looked the picturing forth of the 
blessing that was surely coming to dark 
Xolobe." 

Mrs. Forsyth was equally impressed by 
Mrs. M'Laren, and wrote of her as possess- 
ing a " wonderful personality." The corre- 
spondence which followed the visit was a 
source of help and comfort to the solitary 
missionary, and the extracts from her letters 
which Mrs. M'Laren inserted in the Women's 
Missionary Magazine made her known to a 
wider circle. 

The ecclesiastical crisis which occurred a 
few years later made no difference in South 
Africa, all the missionaries adhering to the 
United Free Church. " I hope," Mrs. For- 
syth wrote, " no one at home will be unduly 
troubled by what has happened. God will 
provide for the Church both at home and 
abroad. How often have we experienced 
that God is able to make all thing work 
together for good to those who love Him," 



XVII 

A BIGGER HOUSE OF GOD 

In 1905 the Greenock ladies arrived at the 
conclusion that the usefulness of their As- 
sociation had reached its limit. The natives 
whom they had been assisting were now 
sensible of the advantage of higher education 
and willing to pay for it, and it was felt that 
they should be left to their own resources. 
With this decision the missionaries on the 
spot agreed; the time had come, they 
thought, when the principle of self-support 
should be put into operation. Mrs. Forsyth 
remarked that she was still quite able for 
the work of training the boarders, and there 
was never any lack of applicants, but the 
need was not so pressing and few required 
help. She added, " Your Society has done 
good work in Africa for God, and what it has 
done for me will be held in everlasting 
remembrance. Greenock Schoolhouse and 
the churches and the children you have 

156 



A BIGGER HOUSE OF GOD 157 

helped will not be forgotten here or before 
God." 

Ida was then home from Emgwali for 
the holidays, a bright capable girl of excep- 
tional promise, and Mrs. Forsyth, looking 
upon her, was moved to ask the Association, 
before disbanding, to make provision for 
completing her education and enabling her 
to carry out her desire to become a teacher. 
This was readily agreed to and a sum was 
laid aside for the purpose. Ida gained a 
good conduct certificate, passed out success- 
fully, and obtained an assistantship first at 
Mbulu and then in a Wesley an School. 

After sixty-four years of faithful and 
successful service the Society dissolved, to 
live again, however, in an informal way; 
for the ladies could not bear to break the tie 
with Mrs. Forsyth so suddenly, and they 
continued to take an interest in her doings 
and to support a native assistant for the 
purpose of living with her and attending 
to her needs. 

Mrs. Forsyth, accordingly, went on with 
her practice of sending the ladies regular 
reports regarding the progress of the work. 
The character of these may be gathered 
from the heading she always placed upon 
them— "The Lord's Work." There was 



158 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

never anything in them about her service. 
As one of her correspondents remarked, 
" She never wrote much about herself; it 
was her work that stood first with her." 
She very seldom used the personal pronoun, 
preferring the word " we." Her reports 
were records of the personal history of her 
people, accounts of individual awakening 
and conversions, or relapse and restoration, 
of baptisms and marriages, and narrations 
of the trials, sorrows, and temptations of 
the women and girls. So simple and un- 
eventful was the story they told that she 
expressed the hope the ladies would not find 
them too " dreich." When missionaries 
who knew her were informed of these reports 
they said: "Mrs. Forsyth will never give 
you any real idea of her work or its results. 
She would not do so if you saw her face to 
face." 

It was not long before the ladies had the 
opportunity of giving practical expression 
to their interest. The church, used also as 
the day school, was becoming too small for 
its purposes. There were over fifty members 
in full communion, and the congregation felt 
the discomforts of overcrowding. " Can we 
not have a bigger House of God ? " they 
asked. 




MARRIED WOMEN OUTSIDE THEIR HUT 



A BIGGER HOUSE OF GOD 159 

The matter was talked of but there had 
been a succession of bad seasons and poverty- 
was widespread, and nothing was done. 
Then action was hastened by a threat from 
the Government Inspector. " The school is 
becoming too cramped," he said, " I must 
close it if better accommodation is not 
provided." This was not to be thought of. 
There was an attendance of over eighty and 
the school was second best in the district. 
Mrs. Forsyth and Mr. Davidson laid their 
heads together and planned an ambitious 
scheme. They would build a substantial 
brick church with stone foundations, iron 
pillars, and verandah, which would cost 
about £500 and be worthy of the Master's 
cause. The elders, headman, and counsellors 
heartily supported the idea. Where the 
money was to come from neither the umfun- 
disi nor the White Mother knew, but they 
had the simple faith which moves mountains. 

Mr. Davidson came up and called a meet- 
ing to start the movement, but that day all 
the heathen population were at a dance, 
the culmination of a two-months' bout of 
immorality, and only the Christians appeared. 
Still, when the preliminary gifts were 
gathered in — £12 : lis. in money, 11 sheep, 
6 goats, 1 heifer, and 1% bags of grain — it 



160 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

was remarkable that the largest donations 
came from the " red " inhabitants who also 
offered free labour to quarry the stone and 
bring the material from a station two days' 
journey away. 

When the Greenock ladies heard of the 
project they hastened to send their aid. A 
first instalment of £100 was sent out and 
lodged in the bank, and Mrs. Forsyth pro- 
ceeded with the arrangements. It was a 
task which proved one of the most trying 
and harassing she had ever ventured upon. 
Drought came and weakened the oxen to 
such an extent that they were unable to 
draw the material and many died. The gang 
of native workmen were lazy and incom- 
petent, requiring the firm management which 
she was too gentle and forbearing to exercise. 
The brickmakers forsook their work and 
others broke their promises. Mr. Davidson 
had now retired at the age of seventy- 
six after forty years' service and she was 
without ministerial guidance and support, 
but she went bravely on fighting her difficul- 
ties. 

It was, however, with profound relief 
that she welcomed a new face on the scene. 
This was the Rev. George S. Stewart, who 
had come out from Scotland to be minister 



A BIGGER HOUSE OF GOD 161 

at Emgwali. He was one who could ap- 
preciate the noble work going on at Xolobe, 
and he rode over occasionally to see Mrs. 
Forsyth and became her warm friend and 
helper. One of the first matters he had to 
put right had given her much pain. The 
headman, Matole, had charge of the local 
contributions for the new building and had 
embezzled them. Mr. Stewart gave him the 
option of restoring the funds or being 
reported at headquarters, and he chose the 
former course. 

The idea of a church entirely of brick 
was abandoned, and iron, lined with brick, 
and an inner lining of wood, substituted. 
From Emgwali Mr. Stewart brought a native 
carpenter and two other experienced trades- 
men and set them to work. It was interest- 
ing to Mrs. Forsyth to watch the bearing 
and industry of these men and note how 
Christian training influenced the character 
of their workmanship. Along with the wagon 
drivers they held worship every evening. 

Among those who carried the bricks was 
a girl whose stunted appearance drew 
Mr. Stewart's attention. " That is Celani 
Nopina," said Mrs. Forsyth, "or rather, 
Nagiwe Nkuhlu is her name now. She used 
to be one of my best boarders," 



162 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

It will be remembered that Celani left 
the school and returned to the mire of heath- 
enism. While in company with a " red " boy 
on the way to participate in some vile custom 
a thunderstorm came on and her companion 
was struck dead by lightning. The incident 
seemed to impress her but she continued to 
avoid Mrs. Forsyth. Now, however, a change 
had come over her; she haunted the mission- 
house looking miserable and unhappy, and 
was given any odd work to do. One day, 
while she was attending to the garden, Mrs. 
Forsyth asked her if she remembered the 
Scripture she had learned in her youth, and 
she replied that she did, and the missionary 
was confident that she would win her back. 

When completed the church was a simple 
little building, but the people were as proud 
of it as a more cultured race would have 
been of a cathedral. They had contributed 
£100 towards its erection whilst the friends 
in Scotland had sent out £200. Mr. Stewart 
presented a water-tank to remind all of the 
promise of Christ to those who drank of the 
living water, and it remains to this day, a 
memorial of his interest and lovingkindness. 
" I can never," Mrs. Forsyth says, " be 
thankful enough for his aid." 



XVIII 

MR. STEWART'S PEN-PICTURE 

Mr. Stewart was one of the missionaries 
supported by the children of the United Free 
Church, and occasionally he sent them a 
letter which was printed as a leaflet and 
circulated amongst the Sunday Schools. In 
one of these he wrote about Mrs. Forsyth 
and the life she led. The description, in its 
simplicity and charm, brings Xolobe and its 
White Mother more vividly before the reader 
than a more elaborate delineation, and here 
it is given: 

" About forty miles from Emgwali, far 
over the Great Kei River, there is a beautiful 
big valley called Xolobe Valley. Along both 
sides of it are great hills, steep and rocky, 
with huts dotted along the lower slopes, and 
woods here and there full of beautiful birds. 
Near the end of the valley there is a rocky 
ledge and a precipice with trees growing out 
of the cracks of the rocks, and on the top 
of this ledge there is a tiny brick house and 

163 



164 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

a school, with galvanised iron roofs which 
you can see from miles away glittering in 
the sun. All along the slopes are many 
huts, and this one house stands alone. 

" If you were to ride there — you could 
not drive, the road is so steep — you would 
be met at the door by a kind-looking Scottish 
lady with very gentle eyes, named Mrs. 
Forsyth, who would welcome you in heartily. 
Before you had time to tell who you were 
she would go away and come back in a 
minute or two with a cup of tea to refresh 
you after your long, hot ride. Then you 
would not be five minutes in the house till 
you felt that you were very much at home, 
and that this was an old familiar friend who 
was talking with you. For you would find 
this lady make you so welcome, and heap 
such kindness on you as no mere stranger 
could do. 

" And as you sat and watched, you would 
see black men and women and boys and 
girls come in dressed in their red blankets, 
and all would get a kind word and a welcome, 
and many who had come from far would get 
food. And though you could not tell what 
was being said in the musical Kafir speech, 
it would be easy for you to tell that this 
lady was much beloved by these half savage 



MR. STEWART'S PEN-PICTURE 165 

folk. Some of the women would have little 
black babies tied on their backs, with big 
dancing eyes and such soft velvety skins, 
and every baby, too, would get a kind word 
or a loving touch from this gentle lady of 
that little lonely house in Xolobe Valley. 

" When the night came, she would leave 
her own bed for your comfort, and would 
sleep on a chair or anywhere, only she would 
never tell you that; you would need to find 
it out. But I don't think you would sleep 
much at night. All the night through you 
would likely hear, from some of the huts 
nearer or farther away, great shouting and 
chanting of strange wild voices, and clapping 
of hands. You would hear too, on many a 
night, voices crying out in strife, and the 
loud rattle of the sticks as the people fought. 
And you would wonder at a lady living alone, 
save for two little Kafir girlies, among such 
wild scenes and sounds. You would be 
afraid, for often blood is shed, and often men 
are wounded and sometimes men are killed. 

"And if you went visiting among these 
huts, you would sometimes be afraid too, 
for after these long nights of drinking and 
of dancing or of fighting, the men and 
women are often sulky and cross, and often 
there are fierce dogs at the huts. Only a 



166 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

short time ago, while this lady was going 
from hut to hut, trying to tell the people 
about Christ, a dog sprang out at her and 
bit her in the face. But nothing will keep 
her from going. 

" And she has long rough ways to walk, 
steep and stony, and the African sun burns 
like a flame of fire. A lonely place and a 
wild people, and hard, hard work. What 
keeps a lady there? 

"If you asked this lady why she lived 
there, she would tell you she loved to live 
there. And if you still asked ' Why/ she 
would tell you, as she tells the wild people 
round, of the great love of God that gave 
Jesus to us, and of the love that led Him to 
the Cross. She would tell you of the love 
that sent Him to seek the lost, over stony 
ways, and through hunger and thirst and 
under burning suns. And she would tell 
you how that love burned in her heart till 
she felt compelled to rise up and follow Him 
to the huts and the steep paths of the Xolobe 
Valley in heathen Africa. 

" And she would tell you how she did not 
feel lonely, for Jesus was her companion on 
these long, hot paths, and how she was not 
afraid, for God watched her home through 
;the wild African nights. And she would tell 



MR. STEWART'S PEN-PICTURE 167 

you how she did not shrink from the rude, 
sulky drunkards, for she loved them, and 
pitied and wanted to help them. 

" And she would tell you how God was 
working miracles still in that great valley, 
and turning these dark souls to the bright- 
ness of the Lord. 

" I want you all to know her and to love 
her, and to pray for her. She lives such a 
brave, happy, suffering life, that it will do 
all you bairns good to know even a little 
about her. Pray for her sometimes in the 
bright mornings, as you think of her walking 
down the steep hill paths in the burning day, 
to carry Christ's Gospel to those who are 
glad to hear and to those who turn away. 
Pray for her as the darkness comes, when 
you think of her toiling home at night, tired 
and hungry, while the dark woods mutter 
and whisper, and the drunken call and the 
drunken song ring along the valley. Pray 
for her, as you think of her alone in that 
wild place, a place often like the dark valley 
of the shadow. And as you think of her and 
try to see her, listen as her lips open, and 
hear her words : c Yea, though I walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod 
and Thy staff they comfort me.' " 



XIX 

THE NEW UMFUNDISI AND HIS 
SISTER 

The Rev. William Auld, M.A., a son of the 
Rev. James M. Auld of Columba Station, 
was appointed to succeed Mr. Davidson at 
Paterson. Born at Emgwali, and educated 
at Cape Town and Glasgow, he was inspired 
with true missionary zeal. As he was un- 
married he brought his sister, Miss Etta M. 
Auld, to keep house for him. It was a happy 
circumstance for Mrs. Forsyth. Miss Auld 
was a warm-hearted capable girl. Both she 
and her brother had known the missionary 
from their earliest days ; the story of her 
work was familiar to them, and as they grew 
up they frequently met her when visiting 
the Davidsons. 

After they settled at Paterson they made 
it their business to look after her welfare and 
comfort. Mr. Auld treated her with all 
the consideration of a son, and would often 
go up and assist her and adjust knotty 

168 



THE NEW UMFUNDISI 169 

points that arose in the course of her work. 
Miss Auld came more intimately into contact 
with her, " and," she says, " I learned to 
love her for her noble life of devotion and 
self-sacrifice which she did not count a sacri- 
fice but a joy." 

The girl often spent days at Xolobe, and 
the two would take a rug and a couple of 
cushions and go out and sit at the point 
where they had the best view of the beautiful 
valley, and there they would indulge in 
long talks, and the visitor would hear stories 
of the missionary's earlier days, of the par- 
ents who had died when she was a child, of 
her brother and sisters, and of episodes, both 
sombre and glad, in her later career. It was 
clear to Miss Auld that she had drunk deep 
of the bitter cup of sorrow, and that she 
had learnt through suffering to understand 
and sympathise with and help others. 

And then, dismissing her memories, the 
missionary would accompany the girl down 
to the stream, and with light heart take off 
her stockings and shoes and paddle gaily 
in the water like any child. 

With Miss Auld let us walk up to the unpre- 
tentious little mission-house on the hilltop: 

' You stepped into what she called the 
' schoolroom,' a bare apartment with a table, 



170 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

a couple of forms, and a desk. Here she 
met with all who came to see her. Here, 
also, morning and evening prayers were held, 
as well as the weekly prayer-meeting and 
the Women's Manyano (Association), whilst 
on Sunday morning the first early comers 
were wont to gather in it for a class. 

" At the end of this room was a door which 
opened into her bedroom. It was simply 
furnished like the rest of the house. There 
was a single bed, from which if you raised 
yourself you could command, through the 
window, a view of the new church and the 
valley. A packing-case, with a drape over 
it served as a toilet-table. A small corner 
bracket, on which stood her travelling clock 
and a few photos, a small table at the window, 
a large native basket for soiled linen, a small 
washstand, and a couple of cabin trunks com- 
pleted the furnishing of the room. 

" Stepping back into the schoolroom you 
found another door leading into the diningr 
room, which contained a table, two or three 
easy-chairs — all old pensioners — a folding bed 
which often did noble service, and a small 
table used as a sideboard, above which hung 
a bookcase with her few well-read and much 
treasured books. 

"A door to the left as you entered led 



THE NEW UMFUNDISI 171 

into a small pantry, while another with a 
glass upper half led you on to the verandah 
where you could always obtain a view of the 
valley. At the right end of the verandah 
was the kitchen with a small room attached 
often occupied by her servant. Along the 
front verandah ran a rough trellis over which 
vines were trained, these giving cool shade 
and abundance of fruit in the season. 

" In a small patch of ground, enclosed by 
a fence of aloes and thorn bush in front of 
the house and along the side, she cultivated 
all the vegetables she used and a few fruit 
trees. A mealie field took up part of the 
enclosure between the church and the house, 
but as the soil was stony and of no great 
depth she never reaped a satisfactory crop, 
and most of the mealies she required for 
household purposes she bought from the peo- 
ple around." 

Another of her friends from this time on- 
wards was Dr. J. Victor Hartley, the Dis- 
trict Surgeon, who writes of her: 

"As District Surgeon of Tsomo with 
26,000 natives living in it, I learnt to realise 
the great value of her work. Those in the 
vicinity of her home were among the most 
backward and wild unsophisticated children 



172 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

of nature, practically untouched by civilisa- 
tion, indulging in their native customs and 
rites — many very immoral — and beer-drink- 
ing feasts, with the resultant affrays, and 
steeped in superstition, affording a happy 
hunting-ground for heathen doctors and doc- 
toresses, many of whom in secret still prac- 
tised witchcraft — raw material of the toughest ! 
But she had little sense of fear. Her force 
of character was such that the raw native 
in his wildest moments of unrestrained pas- 
sion or fury, whether at a dance, a beer- 
drinking, or ill-using his family, always 
showed her respect. 

Quiet, steady, unassuming, she was very 
active, never content unless at work. No 
hill was too steep, no distance too far if a 
native called for advice or aid. When on 
duty in the Kei Hills I would often meet 
her alone wending her way on foot up and 
down the steep, rough footpaths on errands 
of mercy to some sick native man, woman, or 
child. On casually questioning the natives, 
their replies made me realise what a power 
for good her lonely life had been." 



XX 

TOILING AND REJOICING 

The years passed quietly away in patient 
and lowly service, her influence spreading 
and deepening, like leaven, in the life of the 
district. 

The services on Sunday were well at- 
tended; in the noon Bible Class — that fas- 
cinating but anxious bit of work — were half 
a hundred girls; the prayer-meeting early 
on Wednesday morning was a favourite with 
the people, and " it is a good sign of the 
warmth of a church," she wrote, " when the 
prayer-meeting is well attended." There 
was always a goodly number of candidates 
under training or ready for admission to the 
membership. Sometimes the wives of a 
polygamist would come to the classes de- 
siring earnestly to join the fellowship of 
believers. To arrange such matters was 
always a little difficult, and Mrs. Forsyth was 
often sorry for the women. One for whom 

173 



174 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

she had much regard became depressed at 
her position and a look of sadness settled 
upon her face. Naturally in such a state of 
society odd complications cropped up in the 
development of the infant church. One of 
her ablest helpers, for instance, was a convert 
with three heathen sons, two of whom were 
married to Christian women. 

There continued to be numerous conver- 
sions. Even the witch-doctors were attracted 
by what was more wonderful than their 
" magic," and not a few abandoned their evil 
practices and became converts. One woman 
who had held grimly out for nineteen years 
against 'Smoy ana's entreaties came at last to 
her with a broken and contrite heart. She was 
never elated when such victories were won; 
she was only humbly grateful, giving thanks 
to God. Many a meeting of thanksgiving she 
held for all that was being done in the district. 
Not that she was ever satisfied with what 
was achieved. She wanted not "drops," 
but " big showers " of blessing. Her vision, 
too, had expanded. It used to be confined 
to Xolobe; then she took in Africa; now 
her range swept over the entire world. She 
exhorted her friends to the same service. 
" Pray," she wrote, " for Xolobe. Pray for 
Africa. Pray for the world." 



TOILING AND REJOICING 175 

She never sought, however, to hide the 
dark side of the picture. Black hours she 
had in abundance. Women would be forced 
back into heathenism. There would be sus- 
pensions from the membership. Promising 
girls would be tempted and fall away. An 
epidemic of beer-drinking would undo months 
and even years of laborious toil. She would 
go into a hut and find children in the agony 
of some disease and the girls in attendance 
lying drunk. 

One woman nearly broke her heart. She 
had a son who became a good scholar and 
could read the Kafir Bible. When he ex- 
pressed a wish to become a Christian his 
mother went about the district saying scan- 
dalous things against the saint in the mission- 
house. Then she engaged a Kafir igqira to 
doctor her boy, with the result that he 
plunged into sin and became one of the 
wildest and most reckless youths in Xolobe. 
Three other children came to the school and 
showed a bias towards the new way. The 
mother withdrew them at once and burned 
the clothes of the eldest, making her go 
naked. " Is it not enough for you to go to 
hell," said 'Smoyana bitterly, " but you 
must drag down your children with you ? " 
Nevertheless she continued for years to go 



176 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

to the woman's hut, only to be received with 
rude and impertinent words. 

One day she asked her, " What is taking 
the place of God in your heart ? " 

To her surprise the answer was, " God 
has the chief place, Ma." 

" How can I believe that," replied 'Smo- 
yana incredulously, " when I see that charm 
round your neck, and those brass rings on 
your arms ? " 

Next time she went to the hut the orna- 
ments were gone. 

' We are praying every night," the woman 
said, " and saying grace before meals." By 
and by she surrendered herself completely. 

She was very downcast when, having 
sought to win some heathen heart, she failed. 
Her nearest neighbour on the heights above 
the mission-house was a heathen. He be- 
came very ill. But he would not see her, and 
refused the help she wished to render him. 
" I want to have nothing to do with your 
Jesus," he said. He was attended by a 
witch-doctor who spoilt both mind and body. 
"It is one of the saddest sights I have ever 
seen," she declared. 

Natural visitations continued frequently 
to impede the work. 

Drought wrought havoc with the pros- 



TOILING AND REJOICING 177 

perity of the cultivators, and Xolobe was 
quarantined for two years on account of the 
ravages of East Coast cattle fever. When 
rain failed prayer-meetings were organised, 
and they never seemed in vain. Her oldest 
elder — still after twenty-five years' service 
as true and staunch as ever — used often to 
take the leading part. "We are just like 
little birds in a nest," he would say, " sitting 
with open mouths waiting the coming of the 
mother-bird to receive." 

During a dust-storm, followed by heavy 
rain, a woman took refuge at the mission- 
house. It was her old boarder Ida, who had 
been on a journey and had been caught in 
the storm some miles away. Mrs. Forsyth 
was pleased to see her looking so bright and 
cheerful. She had married a Christian young 
man, a Wesleyan teacher and preacher who 
came of fine stock, and continued to teach in 
his school. She was now on her way to 
visit his people, who were very fond of her. 
" She is quite a credit to the ladies," wrote 
Mrs. Forsyth to Greenock. 

The greater part of her day was taken up 
with visiting from kraal to kraal. Soon after 
breakfast she made ready. The dinner was 
prepared and set on to cook and then left to 
look after itself. Carrying a large black 



178 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

sunshade — on which she sometimes fixed a 
white cover — and a bag over her arm con- 
taining her Bible and hymn-book, she set 
out, either alone or accompanied by her 
servant. Whenever on the steep tracts she 
met a man, woman, or child she acted, 
unconsciously, the part of the Ancient 
Mariner and constrained them to stop and 
listen. Under the spell of that calm face and 
those bright eyes they could not choose but 
hear. 

It was the same in the huts where the sick 
and the aged were her special care. After 
a few words of kindly enquiry she read a 
portion of Scripture; then came an earnest 
talk, followed by hymn and prayer. She 
would then direct her maid to prepare a cup 
of tea of the small packet she had brought 
for the invalid. With more kind words she 
said farewell and went on to the next kraal. 

Here she would find all the adults away 
at a heathen dance or beer-drinking, and 
only the boys and girls about. ' These she 
would gather together, teaching them a 
hymn or making them repeat the Lord's 
Prayer, and telling them about the gracious 
Saviour who loved little children. 

And so the day would pass. In the late 
afternoon she would return tired and hungry 




CHRISTIAN FINGO GIRLS 
Ida is on the extreme left . 




A HEATHEN FAMILY 



TOILING AND REJOICING 179 

to find the fire out and the dinner cold, and 
her black cat — which considered itself the 
most important member of the household — 
yawning with ennui. 

" Oh one occasion," writes Miss Auld, 
" after Presbytery meetings at Paterson, 
before the missionaries had scattered, I rode 
up with two of them — my Father (Mr. Auld 
of Columba) and Mr. Hunter of Gillespie — 
to see Mrs. Forsyth. We had not told her we 
were coming, and when we reached the house 
we found it closed. We heard from a man 
passing that Mrs. Forsyth had gone to visit 
some sick person about a mile away. We 
followed. When we rode up to the hut we 
saw her seated inside on a stump of wood, 
deep in conversation with the old sick 
heathen man. She looked tired and very 
heated after her uphill walk, but she was all 
smiles of welcome as soon as she saw us. 
She came out and we sat at the side of the 
hut in the shade chatting. Then she asked 
the missionaries to go into the hut and have 
a few words of prayer with the old man. As 
we mounted our horses she started out for 
home carrying her bag of books and leaning 
heavily upon her stout staff. She looked a 
lonely woman." 

Many would have counted her life grey 



180 



CHRISTINA FORSYTH 



and monotonous, but she never felt it to be 
so because she was doing the work, not for 
her own gain or profit, but for her Master, 
and her toil was lightened and irradiated by 
her love for Him. Service in this spirit is 
always happiness. 



XXI 

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 

In manner our heroine was quiet and gentle, 
with a gracious humility of demeanour 
blended with the dignity of a shy reserve. 
" There was no pose or pretence about her," 
says one who visited her; "no one would 
dream of believing that she would box any 
one's ears." Neither her long years of loneli- 
ness nor her contact with the vilest elements 
in primitive nature had made her any less 
a gentlewoman in thought and action. 

" Mrs. Forsyth," remarked a trader's 
wife, " is a marvellous woman, living all alone 
like that; it is wonderful what some people 
will do for a hobby ! " 

She was not, however, lonely in the higher 
sense. When she was asked if she never 
found the isolation and loneliness oppressive, 
she quietly replied, " I am never alone." 
Her Master was very real and close to her; 
He was her intimate companion and coun- 

181 



182 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

sellor, and she turned to Him as naturally 
as to a living friend. When baffled by 
opposition and difficulties, " we just go and 
tell Jesus about our troubles," she said. 

Prayer to her was nc formal or stated 
experience; it was perpetual communion; 
the atmosphere in which her soul lived. She 
believed in petition and answer as simply as 
a child, and hence her intercession was of the 
most definite character. One of the reasons 
why she went into details so minutely, and 
mentioned so many names in her letters and 
reports, was that her friends in Scotland 
might pray for individual cases, and she had 
implicit faith in their supplications. Once 
she was solicitous about two heathen woman. 
They came to a prayer-meeting, and there 
suddenly made public confession. This, she 
noted with delight, was on the day set apart 
for Africa by the Prayer Union of the 
Church at home. She was a member of the 
Union and a firm believer in its silent and 
potent influence. It was interesting to visitors 
to note that when giving thanks at meals, or 
at family worship — and often in conversa- 
tion — she would in her absorbed moments 
drop from English into Kafir as if it better 
expressed her emotion. 

Her attitude of independence made her 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 183 

grateful for the least gleam of sunshine that 
fell across her path. She saw God's hand 
in every little event, and was continually on 
her knees praising and rejoicing. One day 
she sent two girls a message. A thunder- 
storm, tropical in its intensity, came on, and 
the river rose. They could not cross. Seizing 
waterproof and unbrella 'Smoyana went to 
their aid and actually endeavoured to ford 
the raging water, but could only go far 
enough to throw them a plaid. She thought 
they would be washed away and turned to 
make another attempt when two natives 
appeared and got them over. " How good 
God is ! " she exclaimed. " What a grateful 
trio gathered round the family altar that 
night to return thanks ! " 

Her interest in the doings of the world 
was always keen and kept her mind fresh 
and active. She read the papers and maga- 
zines sent to her from the first cover to the 
last, her special favourites being The Record, 
and Women's Missionary Magazine of her 
own Church, the British Weekly, the Life of 
Faith, and the Quiver. She followed the 
continued stories in the Quiver with great 
zest, for she had a romantic strain in her, 
and a very human and womanly liking for 
the tender side of life, and she was never 



184 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

happier than when aiding and abetting some 
love affair. She saw romance even in a native 
wedding which to others appeared only the 
settlement of a painfully prosaic bargain, a 
mere matter of buying and selling. She 
would give up the entire mission-house to 
the parties and treat them as honoured 
guests. And if the ring had been forgotten, 
or if it dropped and rolled away, or if the 
gifts were not of the kind usually presented 
at a marriage she kept her countenance — 
though not without difficulty. 

For she had that indispensable quality in 
a missionary, a saving sense of humour. 
She saw the light side even of her troubles 
and would smile them away. Often her 
eyes would dance and her whole body shake 
with laughter so that others would be in- 
fected by her spirit and join in the merriment. 
She enjoyed fun even when it was at her 
own expense, and her very simplicity of 
nature laid her open to pleasantry. Once 
when she was unwell, Miss Auld, with 
thoughtful kindness, sent her up some scones, 
bottled fruit, and a bottle of home-made 
lemon syrup. Next day a note came down 
thanking her for the gift and especially for 
the medicine. " I am taking it," she said, 
" and I am finding it is doing me good." 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 185 

The next time Miss Auld saw her she asked, 
"What medicine was that you referred to 
in your note?" Thereupon she produced 
the bottle which had contained the lemon 
syrup saying, " There were no directions on 
it so I took a spoonful after each meal ! " 
" You took it as it was — neat ? " exclaimed 
Miss Auld in an awed voice. " Just as it 
was; and I felt the better of it." Miss Auld 
declared that it was a clear case of faith- 
healing ! 

Her charity was equal to her simplicity. 
She was the living embodiment of the thir- 
teenth chapter of First Corinthians. Kind- 
ness she found to be the best key to unlock 
the hearts of an affectionate people, and 
ridicule a more powerful weapon than abuse. 
In her judgment of the native character she 
was just without being severe, and was 
ready with excuses for delinquents, never 
being better pleased than when she could 
relate some incident to their credit. She 
used to tell of an old man whom she knew. 
In his household were a son and grandson. 
Then came a daughter and daughter-in-law 
and five children. Three friends from Cape 
Colony arrived on a long visit. Next a 
brother died, and the hut in which he had 
stored all the food was burned down. The 



186 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

old man at once brought his sister-in-law 
and her five children to his home. This 
made eighteen persons to cater and work 
for, but the old gentleman bore his burden 
bravely and never grumbled. " And he was 
a heathen,'' said Mrs. Forsyth. 

Overflowing with a kindness unrestricted 
by thought of self, spending nothing on her 
own comfort, her life was a perpetual effort 
to serve others. Her bounty knew no limit, 
and her hospitality was often startling in 
its prodigality. If you were a visitor you 
would be welcomed from afar, and her kind 
hands would be held out to draw you into 
the shelter of the house. You would find 
the table groaning with provisions, and you 
were no friend of hers if you did not do jus- 
tice to the fare. Strangers were usually 
warned at Paterson to partake liberally when 
they arrived. On one occasion after soup and 
a course of fowls and vegetables a baked 
custard was brought to the table in a huge 
enamelled bedroom basin, and proved to be 
as delicious in quality as it was prodigious 
in size. She never failed to have a cup of 
tea ready for visitors when they arrived after 
the hot journey over the hills. At the 
annual meeting of the Women's Christian 
Association, of which she became President, 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 187 

she would kill a sheep or pig and entertain 
the members to a generous feast. 

When alone, however, she lived sparingly. 
She was a good housekeeper, economical in 
her methods, and baked her own bread. 
" That is one thing I can boast of," she 
would say with a smile. " I am a fine baker." 

She rose at six and at seven had break- 
fast, which consisted usually of bread and 
butter and eggs. Dinner was nominally at 
one, but as this was the best time of the day 
for visiting the kraals she was seldom in to 
eat it; the courses were soup and mealies 
and milk, with sometimes pudding in addi- 
tion. At five she had tea with bread and 
scones. She partook of no supper and retired 
at eight, but often later. 

About dress she cared little and was a 
law unto herself so far as fashion was con- 
cerned, her first consideration being her own 
comfort. There were so shops to tempt her 
and no critics to please, and her attire was 
as plain as she could well make it. Her 
boots, several sizes too large for her, were an 
eyesore to Miss Auld, who pleaded in vain 
for the adoption of a neater pair. 

Her homely motherliness made her the 
idol of the people. Every one, " dressed " 
or "red," was welcome at the school-house. 



188 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

She was never too busy to see and talk to 
those who called. Women came at all hours 
to pour out their troubles to her, or to 
ask for assistance. One Sunday morning at 
five o'clock there was a knock at the door. 
She sprang out of bed and answered it. It 
was a heathen woman with a little child. 
" 'Smoyana," she said, " I want a dress for 
my little one. I want her to go to church." 
She received it. Passers-by would come 
and ask for water to quench their thirst, or 
an ash to light a pipe, and would have their 
requested granted and go away with a word 
or two of kindly counsel. Children brought 
their slates and books and left them with her 
to be called for next morning on their way to 
school, and they never went away without a 
slice of bread or a handful of cooked mealies. 
She was naturally so open-handed, so 
generous, and so confiding that she never 
learnt to suspect others or to safeguard her 
own interests, and was consequently often 
taken advantage of, but this she did not 
mind. Even in little things her faith re- 
ceived many a mild shock. Once she re- 
ported a " leakage " of cups and saucers, 
knives and forks. " Perhaps," she said, " I 
have been to blame myself as I ' trusted ' 
and did not lock up anything." 



XXII 

A VISION OF SOULS 

One night, twenty-five years after she had 
begun her task in Xolobe, Mrs. Forsyth sat 
alone in her little dwelling on the hill-top, 
her Bible on her lap, her mind meditating 
quietly on her work. Methodical in habit 
she knew the exact extent of it — the number 
of those in the fellowship of the church, the 
membership of the various classes, the size 
of the day school. She knew also how 
many of the heathen still remained to be 
won. But what could statistics tell of the 
real successes and failures ? 

Her thoughts began to turn back and 
wander over the years. Memories came 
crowding upon her. She saw, in long array, 
men, women, and children whom she had 
prayed for, and influenced and saved. She 
also saw others who had gone their own way 
despite all her endeavour. It was a gallery 
of souls, and as she paused before each she 

189 



190 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

smiled or grew sad as she recalled their 
histories. Vivid little portraits they were, 
vignettes, so to speak, of heathen life and 
conditions, giving the real colour and feeling, 
the humour and the pathos, which figures 
could never supply. 

Here are some of the pictures she saw in 
vision that night as the mists were gathering 
in the valley and as the shadows were 
settling down upon her own life. 

The Reformation of Qualini 

The senior elder was at one time a wander- 
ing ne'er-do-weel about Xolobe, always 
drunk, and given over to heathen practices. 
He was found sleeping on the edge of a preci- 
pice overlooking the church. Influenced by 
Mrs. Forsyth he gradually reformed and was 
baptized and took the name of John, becom- 
ing known thereafter as John Mbanga. He 
brought in his wife and all his family into 
the church. An earnest and impressive 
preacher, he became Mrs. Forsyth's principal 
helper in the work for thirty years. 

A Fine Record 

Gungubele was one of the better type of 
heathen lads; he was a boy of twelve when 



A VISION OF SOULS 191 

Mrs. Forsyth first met him at his father's 
kraal. When he grew up he married a 
heathen wife and they had a beautiful child, 
a girl, who entwined herself round their 
hearts. Her death was a severe blow, and in 
his grief the father turned to that God whom 
he had hitherto despised, and found comfort. 
A touch of ambition sent him to learn to 
read. His books were beside him morning, 
noon, and night; he even went to the school, 
and sat amongst the children, whom, owing 
to his determination and diligence, he soon 
outstripped. His Bible became his constant 
companion. When he was received into the 
fellowship of the church he chose the name 
of Joseph. He exercised an immense influ- 
ence over the heathen, and his wife soon 
became one in mind with him. Not content 
with being a silent witness to the truth, he 
became a worker in the church, and succeeded 
in bringing no fewer than twenty-seven of 
his relatives to Christ, including his father's 
two widows and his three sisters. Drawn to 
Johannesburg by prospects of better work, he 
returned at Mrs. Forsyth's request and was 
elected an elder and preached alternately 
with Mbanga. 



192 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 



A Model Family 

Another elder was Siyo Jonas, who came 
fo Xolobe a widower, and a bold wild heathen. 
He was converted while at work, and cast 
in his lot with the Christians and joined the 
church. Marrying a Christian girl, who 
made him an excellent wife, he studied hard, 
and was soon able to read the Bible fluently 
and preach with great power. He was 
ultimately made the evangelist for the dis- 
trict. His daughters attended the Sunday 
School and took many prizes, and one went 
to Lovedale to study to be a teacher. One 
day three came quietly to the candidates' 
class and gave themselves to Christ. Jonas 
was a great help to Mrs. Forsyth. His 
example might have influenced his two 
brothers at the same kraal, but they preferred 
their old ways. 

From Lion to Lamb 

One of the most reckless and uproarious 
characters of Xolobe was Myanga; none so 
rough and noisy as he on his way to the 
heathen orgies of a Saturday evening. Sud- 
denly the spell of the gospel fell upon him; 
the lion was transformed into the lamb; 



A VISION OF SOULS 193 

none now so meek and gentle as he. He 
became an earnest witness to the truth, 
preaching by word and example, and was 
greatly helped by his wife, a fine girl from 
the Sunday class, who brought up her 
young family as carefully as the strictest 
Scottish mother could have done. 



A Notable Transformation 

Another notable case was that of Maza- 
wazi, a woman of great force of character 
and energy, but considered the most hardened 
sinner in the district. " Never was any 
other woman so haughty and contemptuous 
of all who approached her with the gospel," 
says Mrs. Forsyth. She was converted and 
became a changed woman, and her heathen 
neighbours gazed at her and marvelled. 

Back to Red Clay 

Lolo was 'Smoyana's near neighbour, a 
heathen, proud and obstinate, who hated 
the new way of life and would have nothing 
to do with it. He refused even to speak 
with her about it; whenever she began he 
either kept silent or put her off in one way 
or another or walked away. Let her talk 



194 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

about any other subject and he was voluble 
and agreeable, but let her trend on his 
customs and superstitions and his mouth 
snapped obstinately and he remained dour 
and unapproachable. 

His wife was even worse, and w r ith her the 
patient missionary had often a bad time. 

Once their little girl was ill and at the 
point of death. Impatiently the wife cried 
to her eldest daughter, " Take that child 
out of my sight. I cannot bear her cough- 
coughing." The girl lifted the child up, 
swung her on her back, and tramped to the 
hut of an aunt who was a Christian. The 
aunt, and a daughter-in-law who was there 
at the time, looked in pity on the wasted 
form of the sick child, and the latter knelt 
down and prayed earnestly that she might 
be spared. From that moment the girl 
began to recover, and in a few months was 
able to return to her home. Clad in a pink 
print dress which her friends had given her, 
she was an attractive girl, but when she 
arrived at the hut her mother looked askance 
at her, demanded why she was wearing the 
Christian dress, and ultimately persuaded 
her to throw it aside and resume the red clay. 

Her sister was of a different temperament. 
The Bible lessons from the teacher, Jonathan 



A VISION OF SOULS 195 

Koyanas, in school had made her a Christian, 
and despite the strenuous efforts of the 
family she kept to her resolution and walked 
her own way. She became engaged and 
went to a Christian home, but her parents 
and the rest of the family remained in their 
semi-savage state. 



The Discakded Wife 

Matshoba was a typical heathen with two 
wives and a large family. One of the wives 
appeared at the station. " I want clothes," 
she said; "I want to be a Christian." That 
she was in earnest was proved by her changed 
life. Her example so impressed her husband 
that he also discarded his heathen beliefs, 
and by and by the whole family became 
disciples. When Matshoba, according to the 
law of the church, had to make the choice 
between his wives he married the second, 
who was young and pretty. But the elder 
woman showed the reality of her faith by 
continuing to minister to the family, and 
the eldest son was particularly kind and 
gentle towards her in her enforced widow- 
hood. 



196 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

The Dumb Boy Who Spoke 

Matshoba had a nephew called Maliwe, 
a wild boy, deaf and dumb, who was n6t 
wanted by his friends. Mrs. Forsyth em- 
ployed him to bring milk to the station and 
found him clever, willing, and trustworthy. 
As he sometimes came when she was out she 
was in the habit of leaving the door open in 
order that he might deposit it inside. Once 
the can did not look clean, and when Maliwe 
appeared for it she took up some earth and 
flung it into the vessel to signify that it was 
dirty. He began to labour under the stress 
of some strong emotion, and to her surprise 
exclaimed, " y-Inkwenkwe "■ — " it was the 
boy." It was the first time he had spoken, and 
he never afterwards uttered another word. 

So attached did he become to 'Smoyana 
that he indicated his wish to leave his 
heathen friends and embrace Christianity. 
The Paterson umfundisi and teacher both 
questioned him by signs and were satisfied 
as to his sincerity and put him on probation. 
The outward and visible indication of his 
inward change was the donning of a white 
nightgown and a big waterproof cloak, but 
later, when Mr. Davidson admitted him to 
church fellowship, he was more respectably 



A VISION OF SOULS 197 

attired. He proved a faithful disciple. By 
watching the teacher pronouncing the letters 
he had some notion of the alphabet, and at 
worship he prayed in his own fashion, 
endeavouring to speak, but making strange 
sounds. " But," as Mrs. Forsyth observed, 
" it is not with the lips but with the heart 
that prayer is made to God." 

Maliwe, like many another native, was 
drawn into the life and work of the mines, 
and did not long survive the experience. 

Self-exiled 

When a native became a Christian he was 
subjected to a good deal of ridicule and 
persecution at the hands of his unregenerate 
neighbours and friends, and, not unnaturally, 
he sought to find a new sphere where he 
could live at peace. This was the case with 
Lalapi, a fine character who heard the gospel 
from Mrs. Forsyth, and accepted it, and 
whose wife soon followed his example. His 
land was not very productive and, this 
providing an excuse, he removed to Cape 
Colony, where he got on well. Mrs. Forsyth, 
however, thought that Christian natives 
should remain where they were and try to 
influence their neighbours. 



198 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

Out of the Furnace 

One day Mrs. Forsyth was tramping over 
the hills when she saw a strange-looking 
creature sitting in the grass. It was a 
youth called Jongelanga. His face was 
painted white, and he wore a whitened 
sheepskin; he had been taking part in the 
initiation ceremony which ruins so many 
for life. Some time later she saw him at the 
services and prayer-meeting, and it was not 
long before he repented and decided to throw 
in his lot with the Christians. Big as he was 
he attended school and learnt to read and 
delighted to pore over the Bible. Anxious 
to marry a fine-looking girl, he went away 
to work to earn a dowry and on his return 
they were wedded. She died leaving him 
with two children and he married again, 
another school-girl, a member of the church. 
He became a deacon and joint treasurer 
and preached with great simplicity and 
earnestness. One of his self-imposed tasks 
was to improve and beautify the church- 
grounds. 

Miriam's Stand 

Lolo Pama, a heathen, took his daughter 
Miriam from school in order that she might 



A VISION OF SOULS 199 

take part, along with an older sister, in the 
degrading ceremony which initiates girls 
into womanhood. Protests and prayers 
seemed of no avail. " If she does not go 
into the custom," said her father, " she will 
die." Her clothes had worn out and he 
refused to buy more. Just then a box 
arrived from a Girls' Auxiliary at home and 
she received what she required to maintain 
her self-respect. A few weeks later Mrs. 
Forsyth was delighted to be told that all 
the efforts of her parents and friends had 
failed to make Miriam " red " ; she was so 
good and brave and industrious that they 
had left her alone, and her father had even 
bought her Christian clothes. Then her 
young sister was taken seriously ill with 
inflammation of the lungs. " I do not want 
to see her die," said the mother; "take her 
to her aunt." Miriam carried her to this 
woman, who was a Christian, and prayer was 
offered on the child's behalf. She recovered. 
When her mother saw her again she ex- 
claimed, " Take off her red clothes and put 
them in the fire. Here is a shilling to buy 
a dress." More money was added, and the 
girl appeared in church wearing a pretty 
pink print. 



200 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

The Leg or Mutton 

One day looking down the valley Mrs. 
Forsyth saw a little child weighed down 
with some kind of burden toiling up the 
steep ascent. When she arrived the load 
turned out to be a leg of mutton which she 
had brought as a gift to 'Smoyana. Deliwe, 
as the girl was called, was a heathen from a 
heathen town, with a mother who was kind 
enough but liable to violent fits of temper. 
She continued at the school until she was 
twelve. Though of an affectionate and docile 
nature she did not change her ways, and 
when she married it was to a " red." Only 
when her eyes began to trouble her and she 
was threatened with loss of sight did she 
remember the teaching she had received and 
became a Christian. From that time her 
eyesight improved. A younger sister in the 
school became a Christian and took her place 
in the choir. After baptism she received 
the name of Elizabeth and married well. 



Sister and Brother 

Elizabeth had an inseparable companion 
called Mildred, the only daughter of a witch- 
doctor, a lovable girl whose apparently mild 



A VISION OF SOULS 201 

disposition belied her strength of character. 
She made great progress in school and was, 
like Elizabeth, a fine sewer and baker. When 
she resolved to join the Christians' lot her 
parents, who were very fond of her, could 
not find it in their heart to oppose her wish. 
Her situation, however, was not a happy- 
one, and Mrs. Forsyth was often sorry for 
her. At the beer-drinkings she would sit 
apart, lonely and shunned, until the festivi- 
ties were over. She was received into the 
church at the same time as Elizabeth. 

Mildred's brother also passed through the 
school and obtained the prize for Bible 
knowledge. Troubled like many about his 
deeper life he consulted Mrs. Forsyth. " I 
have two people within me," he said. " One 
urges me to do bad things, and the other 
urges me to do good things." 'Smoyana 
explained how it was and begged him to heed 
the prompting of the Divine spirit. Know- 
ing something of what was passing in his 
mind his heathen mother called in a witch- 
doctor who used all his craft and strangled 
his good inclinations. After he left school 
he became a wild and reckless youth. 



202 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

Suiting the Action to the Word 

Mlonyeni came with his aged grandmother 
to reside in Xolobe. He was one of the 
rawest and most ignorant of men. Soon he 
came under the influence of the white woman. 
" Teach me to pray," he said to her. She 
looked at him and the words of the beautiful 
Psalm came to her mind: "Hide Thy face 
from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. 
Create in me a clean heart and renew a right 
spirit within me!' She began to repeat it 
as the best prayer he could utter. 

"Hide thy facer 

* Yes, mum," he said, covering up his 
features — he thought this was a preliminary 
requirement. 

He was baptized along with his grand- 
mother and made a good recruit, sometimes 
accompanying 'Smoyana on her rounds of 
the huts and praying fervently. 

The Live Coal 

" Can I not take just a little beer ? " asked 
a heathen woman who attended the services 
in her "red" clothes. "Well," was the 
reply, " if you take a very little live coal 
into your bosom will it not burn you ? " 
She saw the force of the argument and 



A VISION OF SOULS 203 

resolved to give up beer altogether. A 
beautiful woman with a gentle nature she 
became a regular attender at church and 
was the soul of lovingkindness to every one. 
Her sister, on the other hand, was bold and 
bad. At every beer-drinking she was the 
worst and the most violent of the company. 
She, too, was influenced by 'Smoyana in so 
marked a degree that her very face changed, 
and she became notable for her meek and 
attractive expression. 

A Scene at Sunrise 

The scene is a Kafir hut on a summer 
morning at sunrise. The floor is well swept, 
the hearth is tidy, there is a neat rack for 
knobkerries, a coil of newly-made grass rope 
hangs on the wall, and everything bears the 
unusual mark of a cleanly and industrious 
home-maker. Sitting on some tastefully- 
made rush mats are the White Mother and a 
company of Christian women quietly engaged 
in praying for the gentle and refined house- 
wife who lies on her death-bed. After some 
comforting words are spoken the low feeble 
tones of the woman are heard, " Oh God, I 
plead for mercy. Do not despise me although 
I am a poor heathen. I cast myself on Thee." 



204 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

The gathering breaks up but she continues 
in prayer and passes away murmuring, " I 
am going home." 

Rorela 

Rorela was the daughter of a hardened 
heathen. A friendly school-girl brought her 
to the mission-house and asked for a frock 
that she might be able to come to school. 
Her happiness in her new possession was 
short-lived, for her mother tore it off when 
she returned and despatched it back to the 
school-house. She grew up a heathen and 
married a heathen. Mrs. Forsyth pleaded 
with her to send her girl, a bright child, to 
school. Rorela went off in a rage. Not 
long after she gave in and became a disciple. 



A Brave Girl 

This is in Mrs. Forsyth's own words: 
" One of our girls, Martha, was enticed by 
her guardian to go with him to Tsitsa. He 
hired a wagon to take her and her sister 
there against my wishes. I objected for 
two reasons: first because she was leaving 
her aged grandmother who had brought her 
up, and whom her guardian did not recom- 



A VISION OF SOULS 205 

pense as he ought to have done; second, 
because she was not going to a Christian 
home. When Martha got there she found a 
red man, ready with a large dowry of cattle 
expecting her hand in marriage. The first 
condition was that she must renounce her 
Christianity and put on red clay. This 
Martha refused to do. They tried to compel 
her; but although they stole her clothes, 
she told them she would go home just as she 
was. A respectable young man from Xolobe 
helped her. She had to return on foot 
and cross several rivers on the way. The 
journey took ten days. Weary and footsore 
she arrived safely at home, guided through 
each perplexing path, and sheltered beneath 
the covering wings." 

Asked of God 

Noventi Nkuhlu was in great sorrow. All 
her children, with a few exceptions, had 
died at their birth. One, born after she was 
converted, was spared and she named him 
Pendulu, or " Answered." She asked her 
heathen husband to have a thanksgiving 
service at the kraal and he consented. The 
day was cold and stormy, but the large hut 
was filled with women, both Christian and 



206 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

" red." Many fervent prayers were offered, 
and there was a general opinion that the 
child should be dedicated to God. When 
the father came to the mission-house to 
register the birth he asked cautiously if the 
baptism cost anything. " No," was the 
reply. " Then," he said, " I give the child 
to you." "Not to me," replied Mrs. For- 
syth; "to God." "All right— give him 
his name." The one appropriately chosen 
was Samuel. 

Lalapi 

When Mr. Buchanan visited Xolobe, 
amongst the school children who sang a 
sweet Kafir hymn was a heathen boy named 
Lalapi. He was later taken away, but Mrs. 
Forsyth saw him occasionally. Marrying a 
heathen girl he made his home in a solitary 
spot in the mountains. One day Mrs. For- 
syth saw a stranger in church and afterwards 
found it to be Lalapi. He had been con- 
verted and wished to learn to read in order 
that he might be able to con the Bible for 
himself. 



A VISION OF SOULS 207 

Hard Hearts 

Kas Nkuhlu was a heathen who always 
rose and walked away when 'Smoyana ap- 
proached his place, and never listened to 
Christian preaching if he could help it. He 
hugged his heathen pleasures and would not 
give them up, and she could make nothing 
of him. And yet he had a Christian woman 
for his chief wife. 

For seven years 'Smoyana visited an aged 
heathen once a week, but his heart was like 
flint. When he was about ninety years of 
age he attended a beer-drinking where his 
excesses made him so ill that he was taken 
home in a cart. He lived on many years and 
died as he had lived. One of his sons was a 
witch-doctor and was stabbed to death; 
another, also a witch-doctor, died suddenly 
when absent from the district; a third, who 
followed the same calling, lost his foot in an 
accident and died soon after. 



PART III 
EVENTIDE 

Age 67-74 



COMPLETELY SHUT IN 

When Mrs. Forsyth ceased her visits to 
Paterson the only link she had with the outer 
world was snapped. She had been in the 
habit of going there every quarter for Com- 
munion, but latterly she began to feel that 
her strength was not sufficient for the long 
and rough pilgrimage. One of her last 
journeys indicated that the time had come 
when she must relinquish what had always 
been a pleasant break in her life and a 
stimulating spiritual experience. 

She set out from Xolobe on Saturday 
afternoon. A strong wind was blowing and 
dark clouds were looming up in the sky. She 
had not proceeded far when a severe thunder- 
storm burst over the land, the rain lashing 
down in torrents and forcing her to take 
shelter in the nearest kraal. When she 
started again the long wet grass and the 
muddy paths completed her discomfiture, 

211 



212 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

but she trudged steadily on until she arrived 
at the hut of a Christian woman with whom 
she had arranged to stay the night. Here 
she disposed of her soaked garments and 
was made comfortable. 

A little old native woman slipped in and 
lay on the floor. She was an invalid with a 
weak back who had also come to the hut to 
remain overnight on her way to Communion. 
" It is my first," she said, " but I am afraid 
the elders won't accept me. I haven't been 
able to attend the candidates' class very 
regularly." 'Smoyana assured her that they 
would not take this into account, but in 
any case she would explain matters to them. 

Her first thoughts on the lovely Sunday 
morning were ones of hope and thanksgiving. 
The invalid and she set out early, walking 
slowly in and out of the mealie fields, the 
Kafir corn being sometimes a foot above their 
heads. Very pleased was the old native 
woman that her companion often paused to 
admire things and to rest, but she did not 
know that 'Smoyana, watching her with her 
deep kind eyes, noticed how trying the 
walking was for her, and purposely made 
occasion to linger for her sake. 

The sweet tones of the church bell were 
ringing out over hill and valley as they 



COMPLETELY SHUT IN 213 

approached Paterson, and when they entered 
the building they found fourteen elders on 
the platform and a bright and happy congre- 
gation. Her thoughts went back to the year 
1879 when she first saw the people, and she 
contrasted their clean and well-clad appear- 
ance now with their ragged clothes and 
uncouth demeanour then. Her old friend 
was received into fellowship with nineteen 
others. After the service many of the 
members came to greet her, and then she 
returned as leisurely as she had come, 
pondering over the solemn service, and recall- 
ing the words of a great Scottish preacher: 
"We are permitted to ascend to the gate of 
heaven that we may descend to the depths 
with the blessings received in order that we 
may bless others." 

Isolated before, she was now completely 
shut in. Apart from the Aulds she rarely 
had a white visitor. Only once, in 1912, 
do we get a glimpse of her. This was when 
a hurried call was made by the Rev. Robert 
Mure, the missionary at Ross, Umtata, who 
writes : 

" I started on horseback one bright, hot 
summer's day from Paterson in company 
with the Rev. William Auld. There seemed 
no direct cart-track, only a sheep-track. 



214 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

After an hour's riding the path became too 
precipitous and difficult for horseback, and 
we dismounted and led our horses on foot 
for a quarter of an hour. Another hour's 
riding brought us to Xolobe out-station. It 
is nothing to boast of, nothing to look at. 
The country round about is mountainous 
with patches of bush here and there. While 
not very picturesque it has a certain grandeur 
and variety of scenery. Xolobe itself con- 
sists of a tin school-house, a few Kafir huts, 
and Mrs. Forsyth's small two-roomed house, 
little better than many Kafir houses, though 
quite clean and tidy and comfortable enough 
in a plain way — no amenities, no trees, no 
gardens, nothing but the veld and the Kafirs 
and the burnt grass and the glaring sun. 

"We dismounted at the door and she 
was there to welcome us. The homely 
frankness, the honest truth-speaking face, 
the open, clear, direct discourse, all with a 
strong Scottish flavour, was most impressive 
and striking, especially in that spot full of 
subtle and too often false-tongued Kafirs. 

" How direct the questions, how simple 
and to the point ! The exact place from 
which I had come; my field of labour; my 
health; was I married; how many children ? 
Then a few simple expressions of thanks for 



COMPLETELY SHUT IN 215 

the privilege of a visit in this remote place 
from a minister, nay, two ministers. There 
was no talk of shop, no comparing of notes 
about conversions among the heathen. 

" A cup of tea was served to us. Then I 
conducted family worship. A handshake, 
and we were off into the veld again and she 
was left alone — a white woman among the 
blacks." 



II 

HER INDEPENDENCE 

There were kind hearts in Scotland always 
solicitous for the welfare of the lonely- 
missionary. The Greenock ladies never 
ceased to think of her and plan for her. 
Without the advantage of personal touch 
with the people in whom they took an 
interest, with nothing but quarterly state- 
ments of bare facts to stimulate them, they 
yet gave regularly to her work, not grudg- 
ingly but liberally and with enthusiasm. 

Others also thought of her and sent her 
help — many who knew nothing about her 
save that she was a lonely pioneer of the 
gospel bravely struggling amidst a heathen 
people. Gifts came from a band of young 
working women. Twelve shillings came from 
two poor girls " with real prayerful interest 
and love." A box of napery, blankets, and 
wearing apparel for her personal use arrived 

216 



HER INDEPENDENCE 217 

from the members of her old congregation at 
Cairneyhill. 

This wealth of effort, this outpouring of 
sympathy, so unselfish, so loyal, was in its 
way almost as wonderful as her own service. 
The Greenock ladies were but types of 
that great multitude of honourable women 
throughout Scotland who are continuously 
busy with the self-imposed task of ministering 
to the needs of missionaries abroad. Little is 
publicly made known about their gracious 
activities; the work is accomplished quietly, 
almost privately, within the sphere of work- 
parties, Sabbath Schools, and girls' classes, 
and by families and circles of friends. It is 
all done in the spirit of Christ, gladly and 
lovingly, and for His sake who did so much 
for Women. 

However generous the intentions of the 
ladies were they were often at a loss how to 
minister to her comfort. Whenever South 
African missionaries came home on furlough 
the first question put to them was: "What 
can we do for Mrs. Forsyth — is she needing 
anything ? " They were well aware she 
would not accept money for her own use. 
On one occasion they sent her a generous 
gift and afterwards saw the amount acknow- 
ledged in the Record of the Church as a 



218 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

contribution from her towards a special 
missionary effort. " She is the most un- 
selfish and independent person imaginable," 
said Miss Macfarlane. 

But now and again they endeavoured, 
almost surreptitiously, to send out little 
articles that might conduce to her well-being. 
When Mrs. Stewart was home she suggested 
a table-lamp, and this she herself conveyed 
out, though with more and more misgiving 
as she approached Kafraria. They also con- 
sulted Miss Auld when she was in Scotland, 
and on her recommendation resolved to 
despatch a bath and an easy-chair to Xolobe. 
On Miss Auld's return to Paterson she 
dropped a casual hint as to what was coming, 
whereupon Mrs. Forsyth reached hastily for 
pen and paper and wrote to Miss Macfarlane : 

" We have excellent bathing facilities 
here, and an easy-chair would be a cumber- 
some thing to get here, as there is no traffic 
by wagon, so if you would not be offended I 
would rather not receive them. We have 
an excellent water-supply within five minutes' 
walk of the house." 

Later, however, when she grew feebler, 
and was unable to go to the river, she pro- 
posed to buy a bath. Miss Auld hurried one 
up from Paterson for her use until she could 




SMOYANA'S BATHING-PLACE 






HER INDEPENDENCE 219 

procure another, on behalf of the Greenock 
ladies, from the nearest store, and congratu- 
lated herself on at last having achieved a 
distinct victory over the scruples of her 
friend. And when she was actually per- 
mitted to sit beside 'Smoyana and darn her 
stockings she felt that the citadel of inde- 
pendence, hitherto so impregnable, had fallen 
at last ! 

Every penny received was accounted for. 
With the proceeds from the boxes of goods 
sent out — she sold the clothing to the 
natives — donations were given to needy 
causes in the neighbouring fields. When 
she left there was a balance of £25 to her 
credit in this connection, and she handed it 
over for repairs to Xolobe church. Once 
when she had a sum of 10s. in hand she was 
at a loss what to do with it, and then wrote 
to Miss Macf arlane : "I will get boots for 
Su-pi, a poor girl who is usually first at the 
early prayer-meeting, even on stormy morn- 
ings. All the girls have boots, Su-pi has 
none, and her feet are swollen with cold." 
Su-pi, it will be recalled, was the grand- 
daughter of Taki. 

She was latterly much troubled by the 
thought that she had accepted money from 
the Greenock ladies in support of her native 



220 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

servant. The understanding in her mind 
was that the servant was also to be a Bible- 
woman, and her scrupulous conscience now 
made it appear as if the disciple had obtained 
greater service than her Master. In distress 
she informed Miss Auld that she must pay 
back <£ol to the ladies. 

' You must not do anything of the kind," 
exclaimed Miss Auld. " The first desire of 
the ladies is that you should have efficient 
help and be well served in your declining 
years. I know that this is their wish, and 
they will be very vexed if you offer to send 
them back any of their money." 

" But I am sure that the pains and 
rheumatism I suffer from are God's hand 
upon me for having taken this money under 
a mistake," Mrs. Forsyth persisted. 

" No ! no ! So far from being God's 
hand of chastisement upon you, they are the 
natural outcome of a life spent strenuously in 
His service. At your age, and lacking all 
care and comfort, you cannot expect perfect 
health." 

By degrees Miss Auld's practical wisdom 
prevailed, and assurance and peace came 
back to the gentle old missionary. 



Ill 

THE SHOCK OF THE WAR 

In view of her advanced age and the hard 
and strenuous life she had lived, her relatives 
in Scotland thought she might now very 
well relinquish her work and settle with 
them at home. The approach of the cen- 
tenary of Dr. Livingstone, in which she took 
much interest, seemed an appropriate oppor- 
tunity for persuading her to make up her 
mind on the point, and one of her nephews 
without her knowledge applied to the Foreign 
Mission Committee of the Church for a 
passage for her that she might return and be 
present at the celebrations. When she heard 
of this arrangement she cancelled it. 

" I am just like Miss Slessor," she wrote 
to Miss Macf arlane ; "I cannot tear myself 
away. Often in my dreams I am at home, 
and I invariably say, ' Why did I leave 
Africa — how can I get back ? ' " 

Rheumatism crippled her, and she suffered 

221 



222 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

from painful outbreaks on the feet and 
ankles, but she would not give in. The only 
concession she made was to stop her walks 
to the more distant kraals. She continued 
all her other activities, though she was 
noticeably much quieter and more medita- 
tive. Her Bible was her constant companion, 
and, as ever, her source of inspiration and 
strength. 

Into the orderly calm of her days in 
1914 came disquieting rumours of trouble in 
Europe, like the first tremors which denote 
a distant earthquake. The shock of the 
early news of the war told heavily upon her. 
She visualised the sufferings of the young 
men in the trenches, the greater agonies of 
the battle-field, their supreme sacrifice — and 
wept. She thought of their splendid heroism 
and of the self-sacrifice and unity of the 
people — and rejoiced. And her faith never 
wavered. " The Lord God Omnipotent 
reigneth," she said, " and He is able to 
restrain the wrath of man. However dark 
the outlook may be He can bring light out 
of the darkness and order out of confusion." 

Comforting stricken ones at home she 
wrote: "I have heard it said that when a 
storm beats fiercely at sea and the billows 
rage, there are depths undisturbed beneath. 



THE SHOCK OF THE WAR 223 

May it be so with your souls in this time of 
trouble." 

As she read of the long lists of " killed in 
action," she said, " it was almost like the time 
in Egypt when there was not a house where 
there was not one dead." 

At first the work was not affected. The 
Inspector of Schools failed to appear — but 
he was a German. The natives were quiet 
and unperturbed. As time went on, how- 
ever, they grew a little restive and trouble- 
some, and food-stuffs went up in price. She 
had to eke out her flour with mealie meal 
made from maize. " But," she said, " how- 
ever long the war lasts, and however trying 
it may prove, the Lord will provide." 

Despite her strong will-power the strain 
affected her waning vitality. In October she 
reached her seventieth birthday, and came 
to the realisation that the end had come. 
" I have passed the allotted span," she told 
her friends, " and I do not think it fair to 
occupy a place without being able for the 
duties." She mentioned to Mr. Auld that 
she would like to retire, but he informed her 
that the Foreign Mission Committee of the 
Church wished all missionaries to remain at 
their posts until the war was over. " So," she 
said, " I will wait until God opens the way." 



224 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

The tragedy of the tremendous struggle 
entered her own life, her nephew, Lieutenant 
Moir, 1st Black Watch, being killed at Loos. 
" He was almost the only man I have seen," 
wrote out his sister, "who was really keen 
to go back to the front. His one fear when 
he was home was lest his platoon should get 
into action without him. He knew perfectly 
well, too, what he was facing. He did not 
consider he had the faintest chance of coming 
through alive in a regiment which was 
always in the hottest of the fighting, but he 
would not for a moment have wished himself 
elsewhere.' 5 

The blow stunned and wearied her, but 
she fell back on the unseen source of strength 
which had never failed her yet. " She is a 
wonderful woman," said Mr. Auld, " and 
keeps bright and happy under all circum- 
stances. She is a saint." 

Another fragment of news affected her 
sadly. " So," she writes, " poor Miss Slessor 
has been called home. What a loss to our 
mission ! I hope God will raise up some one 
to fill her place. I do not think there was 
another missionary in the world to equal 
her. Her heart was full of lovingkindness 
and tender mercy." When the story of 
Miss Slessor's life by the present writer was 



THE SHOCK OF THE WAR 225 

published, Mrs. M'Laren sent her out a copy 
and she read it with delight. "I sat up all 
night until I finished it," she said. " I hope 
it will be an incentive to me to labour more 
abundantly and to endure hardness " — and 
she was seventy years of age ! 



IV 

SADNESS OF FAREWELL 

When, in 1915, Miss Auld returned from a 
visit to Scotland, she was grieved to notice 
the change in her old friend. She had aged 
perceptibly and was much thinner. Both 
she and her brother urged her to come and 
make a home with them at Paterson, where 
they would surround her with every comfort 
and bestow upon her the care and attention 
she needed. She would not hear of it. She 
preferred, she said, to end her life at Xolobe, 
in the belief that by her death amongst the 
people she would do more good than she had 
done in her life. 

" She has led a primitive life among the 
heathen so long," reported Mr. Auld to the 
Greenock ladies, " that she dreads going 
back to civilised life. She has never had 
furlough, and is naturally reticent and shy 
and retiring, and there would have to be 
much sympathy of the silent kind shown for 

226 



SADNESS OF FAREWELL 227 

her, and due allowance made for her ways. 
She spends far too little on herself and too 
much on others. But that is just her all 
through; her modesty, self-effacement, and 
Christlikeness make us feel less than nothing 
compared with her. She would require to 
be cared for instead of caring for others as 
she has done all her life. We would do 
anything for her, and count it an honour, 
but it is difficult to care for her under present 
conditions." All that Mr. Auld could do in 
the circumstances was to go to Xolobe more 
frequently. His visits increased to one every 
fortnight and latterly to one every week. 

It was not to be expected that Nature 
would suspend its inexorable process. 
Though her moral energy was unimpaired 
her physical strength weakened. " I am 
breaking up," she wrote in 1916. An attack 
of influenza left her prostrate for a month 
and she recovered but slowly. She lost the 
use of her voice. " I must give up," she 
decided at last ; " but it will be a great 
wrench for me to leave my midday Sabbath 
class — forty-nine dear girls were present 
last Sabbath." 

She could not trust herself to live at 
Paterson so near the scene of her life-labours. 
" If," she said, " I cannot end my days here, 



228 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

I must go right away to Scotland." Her 
relatives, thankful to hear of her decision, at 
once arranged for her niece, Miss Mann, a 
nurse, to proceed to South Africa and bring 
her home. It was characteristic of her 
humility of mind that she wished to travel 
third-class in the steamer, but, needless to 
say, her friends would not hear of such 
abnegation, and the Foreign Mission Com- 
mittee of the Church saw to the payment of 
her expenses. 

It was pitiful to see her during the final 
days. Miss Auld says it was like watching 
a great tree being torn up by the roots. 
Several times she murmured with a quivering 
face, " It's not the place, it's the people I 
can't bear to part with." To them the 
parting was equally sore. " 'Smoyana," said 
a deputation of women who came to see her, 
"you are not white, you are black. Your 
heart is black, you are just one of ourselves." 
It was the highest compliment they could 
pay; it meant that she understood their 
real nature, and so was able to sympathise 
with and help them in their peculiar needs. 

Messages of farewell began to arrive. 
From her old friend Mrs. Davidson came an 
affectionate letter: "You have," she said, 
"always been a very dear and good friend, 



SADNESS OF FAREWELL 229 

and have been a strength and help in trouble 
and sorrow. I can never forget your kind- 
ness to me and mine." The native pastor, 
the Rev. Candlish Koti, wrote: " 'Smoyana 
and Xolobe are the two names that will be 
always associated together for many genera- 
tions to come." A brief note addressed 
" Dear Mammy," and signed " Your loving 
child, Ida," intimated that her former pupil 
was hastening to Xolobe to say good-bye. 
There was no time for the missionaries of the 
Presbytery to do much, but they hurriedly 
collected a sum of money and asked her to 
accept it and purchase some article which 
would remind her of their affection and 
esteem. 

Later, the Kafrarian Mission Council 
placed on record its high appreciation of her 
work. " Her faithful service, her complete 
self-surrender, her utter self-effacement, and 
her devotion to her Master, have been the 
wonder and admiration of her fellow-mission- 
aries and many others. She will live long in 
the hearts of her people." And from Scot- 
land, from the ladies on the Clyde, came, 
through Miss Macfarlane, the kindest of 
communications: "You are," they said, 
"worthy of the D.S.O. of the highest rank 
in Heaven." 



230 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

Her last day at Xolobe was a trying one. 
A farewell meeting was held to which came 
every soul in the district, Christian and 
heathen, as well as many from other out- 
stations. Mr. Auld explained how, owing 
to advanced age and failing health, 'Smoyana 
was compelled to go back to her own land 
and live amongst her own people. " Never 
let her life and work fade amongst you, let 
it ever be a beacon-light showing you the 
road to Christ." Several natives responded 
saying they would never be able to forget 
the love of their White Mother who had 
come amongst them as a girl and had grown 
old in the service of her Master. 

Then for the last time she addressed them, 
indulging in no personal reminiscences or 
self-gratulation, making no reference what- 
ever to herself, but reiterating with passionate 
fervour the message which it had been her 
duty and happiness to proclaim all these 
years, and inviting them to come to the 
Saviour, the only source of strength and 
peace in this life, and the only hope for the 
better life to come. 

With her usual hospitality she had pro- 
vided a sheep and two pots of mealies as a 
parting feast. The crowd squatted on the 
grass in front of the church, and whilst they 



SADNESS OF FAREWELL 231 

ate she walked in and out amongst them, 
shaking hands with each and saying kindly 
words of farewell. 

Suddenly a storm gathered, the clouds 
broke in sheets of rain, and gathering up 
the fragments the people rushed into the 
church for shelter. Within an hour both 
streams were " down " and impassable. " I 
have never seen them rise so quickly or so 
fiercely," remarked Mrs. Forsyth. 

When the flood-waters abated the Aulds 
returned to Paterson, and a lonely woman 
spent the evening at Xolobe in prayer. 



V 

BACK TO CIVILISATION 

In the clear light of the early morning Mr. 
Auld again rode over the hills to Xolobe to 
see Mrs. Forsyth comfortably installed in 
the wagon. She was conveyed to Pater son 
by a circuitous and less rough way, Bekiwe, 
her old scholar and helper, accompanying her, 
and arrived in the evening tired and shaken 
in body and mind. 

Having lived the life of a recluse for thirty 
years it was not surprising that she shrank 
from re-entering the world. ' You don't 
know," she said to Miss Auld, " what an 
ordeal it has been for me to brace myself up 
even to come to Paterson." 

At first she was depressed and thought 
she would die ere she could reach Scotland, 
but the unobtrusive ministrations of her 
host and hostess soon made her feel at ease, 
and after a few days the shadow lifted and 
her spirits revived. 



BACK TO CIVILISATION 238 

The process of social acclimatisation was 
helped by a babe. The Rev. D. W. Semple, 
M.A., then of Emgwali, and his wife and 
child, were staying at the manse. Mrs. 
Forsyth was much taken with the infant, 
who seemed always eager to come to her. 
This simple circumstance broke down the 
natural feeling of restraint which she ex- 
perienced, and paved the way for pleasant 
intercourse with the parents. 

One of Miss Auld's devices was to place 
interesting story-books in her bedroom or 
leave them lying casually in the corners 
which she frequented. She knew that 
'Smoyana cared no longer for light reading. 
Some time previously when up at Xolobe 
Mrs. Forsyth had given her a book then 
popular in Scotland, with the remark, "A 
friend at home sent this to me, but I am 
past caring to read anything but the Bible 
now." Miss Auld was therefore amused to 
come across her deep in the books she had 
left, with seeming carelessness, in her way. 
One evening she found her sitting close up 
to the window to catch the light of the 
setting sun in order to finish The Lady of the 
Decoration, which she pronounced " good." 

There was a busy fortnight of preparation 
for the overseas journey; then came a 



234 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

farewell to the people of Mbulu. A meeting 
was held of the Women's Christian Associa- 
tion, of which she was President. As already- 
stated this society was affiliated to the 
Upward and Onward organisation, and she 
had just received from Lady Aberdeen, 
the President, a friendly personal letter. At 
the gathering a collection was made as 
umpako wendlela — food for the way — the 
usual native way of presenting a parting gift. 
It amounted to £3 : 10s., one old woman, 
almost eighty, bringing threepence and one 
elder 2s. She was overcome by their kindness. 

When all was over she sighed, and then 
with the fine spirit of fortitude, which had 
carried her through so many difficult years, 
she faced, with quiet and steadfast gaze, 
the dreaded plunge back into civilisation. 

Leaving Paterson at 7 a.m. she and Miss 
Auld were driven down to the Tsomo River 
and across the drift in a wagon. On the other 
side stood a motor-car. She had never seen 
one before, but without hesitation and with- 
out remark she stepped inside. On the 
way her passport was secured. The filling 
up of this had caused her considerable 
amusement. "What is the shape of my 
forehead ? What kind of nose and mouth 
have I got ? " she asked helplessly. 



BACK TO CIVILISATION 235 

Arriving at Blythswood, that " daughter 
of Lovedale," a large training and industrial 
institution, built largely by the gifts of the 
Fingoes, the motor stopped, and Miss Auld 
ran in and told the ladies of the mission 
that Mrs. Forsyth was outside. These went 
eagerly to greet her and endeavoured to 
persuade her to stay the night, but she was 
anxious to finish the first stage of her journey. 

At Butterworth the two friends put up at 
an hotel, and it was remarkable how quickly 
and without apparent effort the missionary 
dropped back into the methods of conven- 
tional life. Every one was interested in her, 
and she confided to her companion that she 
had not found the first step into the world 
so very dreadful after all. 

There was shopping to be done. The 
boots she wore were still an offence to Miss 
Auld, and even more so after the remark a 
lady made when they were put out to be 
cleaned : " Surely, Miss Auld," she said with 
a twinkle, "you have a very large husband 
hidden away somewhere ! " A neat com- 
fortable pair was procured, and Miss Auld 
felt a thrill of triumph when she noticed the 
flicker of feminine pride which the staid 
missionary evinced in the improved appear- 
ance of her feet. 



236 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

Next morning a lady walked suddenly in 
upon them. It was Miss Mann. Aunt and 
niece met for the first time, and Miss Auld, 
watching the loving greeting, thanked God 
that all was well. 

" I have motored up from East London," 
said Miss Mann, " as the train service cannot 
be depended upon because of troops, so you 
have only an hour to spare." 

But all that the two friends had to say to 
one another had been said long before. 

When the parting came the younger 
woman stood and watched the brave, strong 
figure pass out of her life, her fluttering 
bonnet-strings being the last she saw as the 
car sped swiftly down the street. 

And then a picture came into her mind 
of those thirty lonely years at Xolobe, so 
quiet and filled with happy and fruitful 
service; and then another of the future, 
crowded with new faces and scenes and 
exciting experiences, and she put up a silent 
prayer that the aged saint might be dealt 
with very tenderly and be kept safe and at 
peace. 



VI 

WAS IT WORTH IT ? 

As we watch her passing from the scene of 
her thirty years' toil, one inevitably asks the 
question, what does such a life and such a 
service as hers amount to ? Were they, as 
some might think, too restricted in scope ? 
Was it worth spending so long a time wrest- 
ling with a few hundreds of heathen ? What 
she accomplished — did it justify the expendi- 
ture of so much thought and energy ? 

So far as visible results are concerned 
they were neither meagre nor unimportant. 
Though progress is steady, South Africa is 
not, perhaps, so fruitful a mission-field as 
other parts of the continent. A revival is 
seldom experienced; converts are, as a rule, 
few; the level of spiritual life is not high. 
But Mrs. Forsyth had no reason to be dis- 
satisfied with what was achieved in her 
thirty years' sojourn at Xolobe. 

When she arrived the people around her 

237 



238 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

were pure heathen and as wild and hopeless 
as any tribe in Africa. Xolobe is now a 
fully organised mission-station with a fine 
church building, a day school with four 
teachers and an attendance of about 140, 
Sunday services, Sunday School, a young 
women's class, and a week-day prayer- 
meeting, all carried on by the office-bearers 
she trained. There is also a branch of the 
Women's Christian Association, the members 
of which visit the sick and aged from kraal 
to kraal. Mrs. Forsyth, in short, civilised 
the district, gave the people a knowledge of 
God, and brought many scores to the feet 
of Christ. She had been true to the signifi- 
cance of her Kafir name. " Come . . . O 
breath," said the prophet, " and breathe 
upon these . . . that they may live. . . . 
And the breath came . . . and they lived." 

But neither figures nor organisations pre- 
sent a true estimate of what she performed. 
Miss Auld sums up the matter rightly 
when she says : " I think we will never really 
know the true extent of her work and prayer 
till that day when all shall be revealed." 

For the results attained Mrs. Forsyth 
herself took not an atom of credit. She 
held that she was only an instrument; the 
power and the strength came from above. 



WAS IT WORTH IT? 239 

" I desire," she says, " to give all the glory 
to God for what He has done. Not unto us, 
Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name be all 
the glory." 

The chief value of her story to those who 
look on from afar is the example it gives of 
a life utterly consecrated to the service of 
Christ. Her abandonment of self, her sacri- 
fice of everything which makes life enjoyable, 
her humility of spirit, her faith and hope and 
courage which never failed in the face of the 
most baffling obstacles and worries, her 
undimmed freshness of soul amidst the 
spiritual loneliness and desolation of heathen 
Africa — all make her stand out as one of the 
rare and attractive personalities who move 
and uplift hearts out of the common rut into 
higher and nobler planes. Her influence 
cannot die with the cessation of her work; 
it will live on and spread beyond the confines 
of Xolobe; it will inspire other wayfaring 
and struggling souls; it will stimulate and 
nerve her sister-workers toiling in the mis- 
sion-fields; and it may bring into a like 
vocation and sphere some, at least, of those 
who are, in these new days, dreaming of 
heroic service. 



VII 

AN ESTIMATE FROM THE FIELD 

But a missionary in the field has perhaps 
the best right to estimate the worth of 
her character and service, and here is the 
reasoned opinion of the Rev. Robert Mure of 
Ross Mission: 

" In one sense the contrast between Mrs. 
Forsyth and other missionaries in the South 
African field was very great. She had the 
smallest sphere of any of us — just one 
station, and even that was under the care 
of her minister. We missionaries have many 
stations — fifteen, twenty, even thirty or over. 
We are superintendents. We ride about like 
bishops, ordaining, ordering, giving charges, 
working late and early. No one can call it 
easy work — and in a sense we are great men 
in our districts. She was different, a humble 
figure without charge or function or office 
in any ecclesiastical sense, ranking as an 

240 



ESTIMATE FROM THE FIELD 241 

honorary lay missionary. She had no house 
to speak of, only a but and a ben, no horse 
or trap. She simply walked on foot and 
visited the heathen in their houses close by, 
and spoke to them of the way of salvation. 
How different from the missionaries with 
their large dioceses and much organisation 
and much travelling and heavy correspond- 
ence. Yet, no doubt, she was the most 
apostolic figure amongst us carrying on a 
more apostolic work. 

" She lived in a remote corner of Fingoland 
far from the railway and the road and the 
beaten track. There are tracks to her house, 
as there are tracks to everywhere in South 
Africa, made by the feet of savages and by 
their flocks and herds searching for food, but 
Xolobe is a dull and lonely spot for a white 
woman. To live there alone among a few 
black folk, in a house not much better than 
theirs, and sharing largely their simple life 
and simple fare — it was an eccentric thing, 
perhaps, like that of the new Bush Brother- 
hood in Australia, but in her case there was 
no sense of spiritual pride because of ascetic 
distinction or connection with a great con- 
templative or historic Order in the Church. 
She was simply a lone woman, separated by 
no special function or training or qualifica- 



242 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

tion, or churchly ritual, merely a decided 
and sincere Christian with a great love of 
souls in her heart, and a deep yearning for 
the salvation of the heathen. They were in 
hundreds around her. Heathen men and 
women and children, likeable, even lovable, 
in many ways, but grossly ignorant of the 
best things in life, and without hope for the 
next life. To her this was a great chance — 
to be free to live amongst them, and day in, 
day out, strive to teach them the better 
way. 

" Few can endure such loneliness as hers 
for very long. Even the most isolated of 
our unmarried missionaries has a certain 
and unfailing social solace and variety, his 
itinerations, his constant dealing with 
churches and schools and mission agents, and 
persons in trouble, or needing advice, who 
visit him daily from one part or another of 
his district. The missionary's life is really 
not dull or lacking in intercourse with his 
fellows by any means. 

" But Mrs. Forsyth had none of those 
social opportunities. She lived at Xolobe 
for thirty years, month after month and year 
after year, and daily set her face gladly to 
the same hard work. She did not throw it 
up disappointed after five years; she endured 



ESTIMATE FROM THE FIELD 243 

it until age and health compelled her to 
retire. It is unique in our South African 
mission-field. It is a unique case of the 
triumph of the soul over a comfortless and 
heathen environment." 



VIII 

REST TIME 

By devious ocean ways and through sub- 
marine-infested home waters Mrs. Forsyth 
came back to her own land and her own city, 
and looked upon friends and scenes she had 
not seen for thirty years. From Glasgow 
she went to Edinburgh to be received by the 
Foreign Mission Committee of the United 
Free Church, of which Sir Andrew H. L. 
Fraser, K.C.S.I., is Convener. That quiet 
book-lined room has seen many a missionary 
welcomed home from the ends of the earth, 
but it is doubtful whether a more interesting 
figure ever appeared before the Committee 
than this old lady of Xolobe, with the loneli- 
ness of her self-imposed exile clinging to her 
and giving her a curious air of aloofness. 

On a subsequent occasion she was con- 
voyed from Glasgow to Edinburgh by the 
cousin mentioned in the first chapter, now 
an active lady of eighty years of age. They 

244 



REST TIME 245 

missed one another on returning and Mrs. 
Forsyth went back alone. In the long, dark 
tunnel she heard a small voice singing softly 
what seemed at first like some childish 
rhyme, but by and by she caught the words, 
"Lord, bless Thy little lamb to-night." It 
was a little girl who was afraid of the dark- 
ness and was singing to comfort herself. Such 
ingenuous faith touched the heart of the 
African missionary, and she too comforted 
herself with the words. 

She had much to learn and witness of 
what had been achieved in the arts of life 
during her long absence, so that her interest 
in things was kept fresh and keen. But 
often the kaleidoscopic scenes about her 
grew dim, the multitudinous sounds drifted 
into silence, and she was back in Xolobe 
with the African sun blazing overhead, the 
bronze forms of the Fingoes moving about 
her, and the hum of the children in their 
wattle-and-daub school murmuring in her 
ears. • • • 

' 'Smoyana," said the writer to her one 
day in summer when she was sitting looking 
out upon the beautiful sunlit hills of the 
homeland, " if you had the chance would you 



246 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 

go back and live these thirty years over again 
at heathen Xolobe ? " 

" Yes," was the quick but quiet reply, 
" I should like to do better than I have 
done." 

" But you have done a tremendous lot." 

Her eyes filled with tears. 

" I have done very little," she said simply, 
" I should like to do much more before I 
die." 



INDEX 



Africa, South, physical condi- 
tions, 32; history of, 33 

Auld, Rev. Wm", 168, 223, 
226, 230, 232 

Auld, Miss, 168, 179, 184, 187, 
218, 220, 226, 228, 233, 234 

Beer-drinking, 87 
Bekiwe, 50, 114, 232 
" Bella Moir," 118 
Bible Class, 97, 173 
Buchanan, Rev. J., tribute to 
Mrs. Forsyth, 121 

Cairneyhill, 25, 26, 65, 217 

Davidson, Rev. James, 39, 47, 
54. 56, 58, 63, 71, 96, 107, 
117, 129, 146, 159 

Emgwali, 28, 43, 149, 157, 
161, 233 

Fingo race, origin of, 35; 
character of, 72, 78, 84 

Fingoland, 38 

Forsyth, Christina, birth, 16; 
conversion, 18; Sunday 
School teacher, 19; love 
story of, 20, 27, 65; at 
Cairneyhill, 25; vovage to 
South "Africa, 28; at Em- 
gwali, 43; teacher at Pater- 
son, 47-64; marriage, 65; 
return to Paterson, 68; ar- 
rival at Xolobe, 74; adven- 
tures, 80; opens day school, 



93; siege of the chief, 89; 
starts a Bible Class, 97; 
help from Greenock Ladies' 
Association, 112; the Green- 
ock Schoolhouse, 116; Mr. 
Buchanan's visit, 121; ar- 
rival of Miss Lamb, 129; 
burning of the church, 133; 
opening of new building, 
134; school taken over by 
Government, 144 ; training 
of boarders, 148; doctor's 
opinion, 150; visit of Mr. 
and Mrs. M'Laren, 152; new 
church, 159; opening, 162; 
Mr. Stewart's pen-picture, 
163; advent of Mr. and 
Miss Auld, 168; personal 
traits, 181; last visit to 
Paterson, 211; her inde- 
pendence, 217; the war and 
her work, 222; her nephew 
killed in action, 224; retiral, 
228; last day at Xolobe, 
230; arrival at Paterson, 
232; departure for East 
London, 236; estimate of 
her work, 237, 240; in Scot- 
land, 244 

Greenock Ladies' Association, 
112, 127; winding up of, 
156; ladies' interest and 
gifts, 216, 217, 219 

Greenock Schoolhouse, 117 

Hartley, Dr., tribute, 171 



247 



248 



CHRISTINA FORSYTH 



Ida, 120, 148, 157, 177, 229 
Initiation ceremonies, 86, 140 

Kafirs, origin of, 34; national 
suicide, 37; characteristics, 
40; language, 44 

Koti, Candlish, 134, 229 

Lamb, Miss, arrival at Xolobe, 

129; resignation, 132 
Laws, Rev. Dr., 47 

Macfarlane, Miss, 113, 218, 

219, 221, 229 
M'Laren, Mr. and Mrs., visit 

to Xolobe, 152; gift of 

Mary S lessor, 225 
Mann, Miss, journey to South 

Africa, 228, 236 
Moir, John (father), 16, 

(son), 25 
Mure, Rev. Robert, visit to 

Xolobe, 213; tribute, 240 

Persecution, 95, 99 
Polygamy, 85, 173 
Prayer, 54, 88 



Prayer meetings, 54; for rain} 
60, 147 

Sclater, Rev. John, 19, 39, 63 
Semple, Rev. D. W., 233 
'Smoyana, meaning of, 44 
Stewart, Rev. George S., ar- 
rival, 160; pen-picture of 
Mrs. Forsyth, 163 

Taki, troubles with, 100 
Thompson, Newton O., opin- 
ion of natives, 74; tribute 
to Mrs. Forsyth, 124 

Union of the churches, 151, 
155 

War, first news of, 222 
Witch-doctors, 85, 108, 174 

Xolobe, situation, 71, 75; 
character of people of, 72, 
84; Mrs. M'Laren's descrip- 
tion, 153; Mr. Stewart's 
pen-picture, 163 ; Miss 
Auld's account, 170; Mr. 
Mure's description, 214, 241 









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